In brief
Marchesi Antinori, a historic Tuscan wine estate, said masked men bypassed alarms and cameras to load two trucks of Tignanello, Solaia and Guado al Tasso with 30,000 bottles worth about €5 million. The company’s chief executive described the break‑in as the largest break‑in of its kind in Italy, urging authorities to trace the missing cargo through the country’s extensive road surveillance. The incident underscores a worrying trend of targeted thefts in the premium wine sector, as other Italian regions have recorded similar losses this year. While no arrests have yet been announced, investigators hope road cameras will reveal the trucks’ movements. Marchesi Antinori, founded in 1385, exported to 170 countries and recorded last year’s revenue at €263 million, now faces a significant supply gap for the international market.
Marchesi Antinori, a family‑owned winery that has operated for more than six centuries, announced that a group of masked men stole 30,000 bottles of its most valuable Tuscan reds from a storage facility in Tuscany. The missing cargo is valued at roughly €5 million.
The theft is considered the largest wine theft in Italy. Six or seven perpetrators quietly disabled the alarm system and disabled the camera feed before loading two large trucks with batches of Tignanello, Solaia and Guado al Tasso wines. The trucks were then dispatched around the morning of Saturday.
Renzo Cotarella, the chief executive, told a national newspaper that the break‑in had never happened before and that thieves apparently knew which bottles to target because the selection ranges from €150 to €500 each. The company is hopeful that the country’s road cameras will trace the trucks and help recover at least a portion of the missing wine.
The theft was only discovered on Monday when staff arrived at the warehouse and found the doors ajar. No apprehensions have been made yet.
Marchesi Antinori exports its wines to 170 countries. In 2025 it recorded revenue of €263 million, but the recent loss poses a real risk to its global distribution network. The incident comes in the wake of several other high‑profile wine thefts across Italy, including a northern Piedmont operation that saw hundreds of thousands of euros in bottles stolen.
The chain of events illustrates growing vulnerabilities in the luxury goods supply chain. Law enforcement is now focused on locating the stolen consignments through traffic footage and interrogating potential insiders. The wine community is watching closely for any signs of the missing surplus in illicit markets.
