Seven masked thieves have stolen 30,000 bottles of wine worth around €5m from Marchesi Antinori's Cortana storage facility in Tuscany, in what is likely one of the largest wine thefts in Italian history.

The family-owned producer discovered the theft on Monday morning, the Financial Times reported. The criminals took thousands of cases, including many of Antinori's flagship Super Tuscans: Tignanello, Solaia and Guado al Tasso.

How did the theft unfold?

The estate said the seven men disabled the facility's alarm system before removing the stock. Antinori holds extensive CCTV footage of the raid, which points to a planned operation by professional thieves rather than an opportunistic break-in.

The scale of the haul — two truckloads of bottled wine — sets the incident apart from typical cellar thefts and raises immediate questions about how such a volume of classified stock can move through the market undetected.

Renzo Cotarella, chief executive of Antinori, told the FT: "We still hope we are able to find the wine … two trucks cannot just disappear."

He added: "These wines have a great value and I don't know how they can sell all this wine around the world without being seen."

Is this part of a wider pattern?

The Antinori heist follows a series of high-profile wine thefts in Italy this year:

• In June, thieves stole €280,000 worth of wine from the Affinatore restaurant in Milan.
• Banfi's Strevi winery in Piedmont lost 3,000 bottles worth close to €100,000.

Three significant thefts within months point to organised targeting of high-value Italian wine inventories, from restaurant cellars to producer storage sites.

What does this mean for the trade?

For producers, distributors and insurers, the incident highlights the exposure of premium inventory held at storage facilities rather than secured cellars. Super Tuscan labels such as Tignanello and Solaia carry high resale values and are globally recognisable, which cuts both ways: the wines are attractive targets, but large volumes appearing on the grey market should be traceable.

Antinori's footage of the raid gives investigators concrete material to work with, and the sheer volume of stolen stock — 30,000 bottles — will be difficult to place through legitimate channels without detection.

The coming weeks will show whether police can trace the two trucks and recover the stock, and whether further producers respond by tightening security at off-site storage facilities.