More than 3,000 bottles of Barolo disappeared from the cellar of the Conterno Fantino winery in Monforte d'Alba, in Italy's Piedmont, on the night of September 16–17. Four masked men arrived on foot through the vineyards and, according to investigators, likely got inside through a side window without an alarm. Loading took them about three hours. Italian media estimate the damage at hundreds of thousands of euros. Police have not yet found either the bottles or the perpetrators. ORF ↗ Cuneo24 ↗
Key actors — tap for context
Conterno Fantino
A winery in Monforte d'Alba founded in 1982 by Guido Fantino and brothers Diego and Claudio Conterno. It farms 23 hectares and fills between 125,000 and 140,000 bottles a year.
Why here: Over 3,000 bottles of Barolo, about two percent of its annual production, disappeared from its cellar.
More info →
Monforte d'Alba
A municipality in the province of Cuneo in Piedmont, one of eleven municipalities on whose land Barolo may be grown.
Why here: This is where the burgled cellar is located.
More info →Barolo
A red wine made from the nebbiolo grape variety, produced in Langhe and protected by Italy's highest designation, DOCG.
Why here: The stolen bottles are from the 2021 and 2022 vintages.
Langhe
A hilly wine-growing region in southern Piedmont. Since 2014, along with Roero and Monferrato, it has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Why here: The area where both this year's thefts took place.
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Piedmont
A region in northwestern Italy with its capital in Turin.
Why here: In three months, two batches of 3,000 bottles each have disappeared from wine cellars here.
More info →Banfi
A wine company known primarily for its operations in Montalcino, Tuscany, which also has a cellar in Strevi, Piedmont.
Why here: In late June it lost over 3,000 bottles of Alta Langa DOCG.
Rodolfo Maralli
President of the Banfi wine company.
Why here: After the June theft, he pointed out that the stolen bottles can be traced within the distribution chain.
Carabinieri
Italy's gendarmerie corps with police powers.
Why here: They are investigating the theft together with the prosecutor's office.
More info →
Cuneo
A province in southern Piedmont.
Why here: It contains Monforte d'Alba and the entire zone where Barolo may be grown.
More info →They loaded up with the company's own forklifts, pushed the vans down the slope
The winery's camera system captured four men dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and dark gloves. Shortly before midnight, the footage shows one of them operating a forklift belonging to the winery with the ease of someone who works with such a machine on a regular basis. SRF ↗ Cuneo24 ↗For transport they used two of the winery's own vans. To keep the engine noise from being heard near neighboring houses, they pushed them more than a hundred meters down the slope and only started them once on the road. The forklifts were then returned to where they had been standing before. NOS ↗ Cuneo24 ↗
The winery only noticed the theft several days later. The case is being investigated by the carabinieri together with the prosecutor's office, who are collecting camera footage from the surrounding area and checking phone records. ORF ↗ Cuneo24 ↗
They took the vintages that had just gone on sale
The stolen bottles are Barolo from the 2021 and 2022 vintages, including large formats, meaning 1.5-liter magnums. Among them is also Ginestra Vigna Sorì Ginestra, one of the wines the winery is known for. SRF ↗ WineNews ↗These are not archive bottles from a back shelf. Under the production regulations, Barolo must age for at least 38 months counted from November 1 of the harvest year, of which 18 months must be in wood, and it may only be sold starting January 1 of the fourth year after the harvest. The 2021 vintage could thus go on the market from January 2025, and the 2022 vintage from January 2026. The thieves therefore carried off exactly the stock the winery is currently selling from. Ministry of Agriculture (Barolo DOCG production regulations) ↗
European e-shops show the price level: the 2021 vintage of Sorì Ginestra sells there for 88 euros for a standard bottle and 209 euros for a magnum. Superiore.de ↗
Trade outlets also noticed that the perpetrators knew exactly what they were after. According to the newspaper Cuneo24, investigators consider the theory that the theft was made to order to be more than well founded. Cuneo24 ↗ WineNews ↗
Every bottle has its own number
Turning three thousand bottles into cash is, however, harder than it might seem at first glance. Under the 2016 wine law, wines carrying Italy's highest designation, DOCG, must bear a state control seal that is affixed over the closure in a way that prevents it from being reused. It is printed by the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, the same state printing works that produces Italian banknotes and official documents, and each seal carries its own identification number, by which an individual bottle can be traced in a database. Wineshop.it ↗ WineNews ↗That is precisely why wineries don't stay quiet after such thefts but go public with the case. Conterno Fantino has called on people to report any suspicious offer of this wine to the carabinieri. SRF ↗
In Piedmont, it's the second such theft in three months
An almost identical case occurred on the night of June 28–29. More than 3,000 bottles also disappeared then from the cellar of the Banfi company in the town of Strevi, in the province of Alessandria — this time bottles of the sparkling wine Alta Langa DOCG. The thieves took whole pallets and picked out specific items, ranging from Cuvée Aurora and its rosé version to the Riserva 100 Mesi. With prices ranging from 26 to 110 euros per bottle, the company put the damage at several tens of thousands of euros. WineNews ↗ Askanews ↗Banfi president Rodolfo Maralli said at the time that the stolen bottles are identifiable and can be tracked throughout the distribution chain, which makes them harder to sell. The company therefore made the case public and asked both customers and retailers for cooperation. WineNews ↗
In connection with both cases, WineNews acknowledges that a group specializing in break-ins at well-known cellars could be operating in the area. The thefts share the same signature: familiarity with the premises, a targeted selection of specific wines, and, as it happens, the same number of bottles carried off. WineNews ↗
*Illustrative photo: vineyards between Monforte d'Alba and Serralunga d'Alba in Piedmont, Wikimedia Commons. Author: Christoph Strässler. License CC BY-SA 2.0.*
