30,000 Antinori bottles worth more than $5 million stolen in Tuscany

A theft lasting 3 hours

Antinori CEO Renzo Cotarella said the Cortona warehouse handles shipments of all the company’s wines. Video footage shows 7 to 8 masked people entering the building. The alarms were deactivated, and the group spent 3 hours loading wine into 2 trucks before driving away.¹

The stolen stock comprised 1,000 cases of Solaia 2023, 1,000 cases of Tignanello 2023 and 500 cases of Guado al Tasso 2023 and other Antinori wines from the same vintage. The total was 2,500 cases, or 30,000 bottles, worth more than $5 million.¹

Investigation and distribution watch

Italian police are investigating. Wine Spectator assessed the circumstances as consistent with either an inside job or the involvement of someone familiar with Antinori’s operations. Cotarella said the wines had been prepared for export on Monday and were positioned near the warehouse’s external doors.¹

All the stolen wine was from the 2023 vintage. Antinori produced 7,000 cases of Solaia and about 25,000 cases of Tignanello that year. In a typical vintage, the company exports 500 to 800 cases of Solaia to the United States.¹

Cotarella said Antinori asked importers, restaurateurs and other partners to watch for bottles appearing outside official distribution channels. Separately, Wine Spectator suggested that the company’s best chance of resolving the case may be to identify anyone attempting to sell such a large quantity of high-end wine.¹

Antinori has insurance, but the coverage is insufficient for a theft of this scale. The company expects compensation equal to about 10% of the wines’ value.¹

Company response

Cotarella acknowledged the financial loss but said the event had, above all, shocked everyone at Antinori and left them feeling very sad.¹