Antinori wine theft: 30,000 bottles reported stolen in Cortona

The Antinori wine theft reported this week involves about 30,000 bottles taken from the company's depot in Cortona, in the Tuscan province of Arezzo, according to ANSA, Il Post and Il Sole 24 Ore. The three outlets put the value at around €5 million; Il Post and Il Sole 24 Ore add that no arrests have been made.

Marchesi Antinori, the Florence-based wine company, reported the theft, Il Post writes. Staff found the stock missing when they returned to work on the morning of Monday 5 October, according to the four reports consulted. They differ on the night: Il Post and Il Sole 24 Ore place it on Saturday, ANSA and Wanted in Rome on Sunday.

The account of how it happened comes from Corriere della Sera and the Financial Times, as relayed by those outlets. According to that account, at least seven people switched off the alarm and loaded the wine onto two lorries.

Thirty thousand bottles, one vintage, and no arrests reported four days after staff found the depot emptied.

What the Antinori wine theft took

The labels named are Solaia, Tignanello and Guado al Tasso. Chief executive Renzo Cotarella told Corriere della Sera that every bottle was from the 2023 vintage, Il Post reports. ANSA counts about 10,000 bottles of Solaia; Il Sole 24 Ore quotes Cotarella putting Solaia and Tignanello at roughly 10,000 to 12,000 bottles each and saying the figures are still being checked.

Prices vary by source as well. ANSA gives €120 to €300 a bottle, while Il Post and Il Sole 24 Ore give €150 to about €500. Tignanello and Solaia come from the Chianti Classico area south of Florence, whose producers showed their wines in September at the Chianti Classico Expo in Greve.

What the company and investigators say

Carabinieri and police are investigating, Il Post reports, and neither the wine nor those responsible had been found by 9 October. No investigating authority is quoted in any of the four reports.

Cotarella is quoted by Il Post as saying that "two lorries full of goods cannot vanish into thin air" and that he hopes to recover at least part of the bottles, because Tuscan roads carry many cameras. The company is contacting customers and asking them to watch for its wines offered outside the usual channels.

Il Sole 24 Ore adds that Antinori is insured but doubts, Cotarella told the paper, that the policy covers a loss on this scale.

Marchesi Antinori traces its origins to 1385 and has a turnover of about €263 million a year, according to Il Post and Il Sole 24 Ore. Both also recall that more than 3,000 bottles of Barolo were reported stolen from the Conterno Fantino winery in Piedmont in mid-September; neither report cites investigators linking the two cases. The next step in the Antinori wine theft lies with the inquiry and with the company's final count.