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Thieves pull off Italy's biggest-ever wine heist, stealing 30,000 bottles worth 5 million euros (apnews.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by to c/world@lemmy.world
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Thieves stole about 30,000 bottles of some of Italy’s most prized wines worth an estimated 5 million euros ($5.8 million) from a winery in Tuscany, in what the producer described Friday as the country’s largest wine theft on record.

The theft targeted Marchesi Antinori’s facility near Cortona, in the province of Arezzo, where a group of at least seven thieves on Saturday night made off with bottles of some of Italy’s most sought-after wines, including Solaia, Tignanello and Guado al Tasso. The theft was discovered Monday, but the company made it public on Friday to avoid interfering with the investigation.

Chief Executive Renzo Cotarella said the thieves disabled the winery’s alarm system and surveillance cameras before entering with two large trucks. Using the company’s forklifts, they loaded the vehicles with wine and fled during the night.

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[–] 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

Crew of the great Canadian maple syrup heist:

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    • [–] 10 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

    How the heck do you then unload 30K bottles of stolen wine? I feel like this would be a daunting task.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

    A couple of people can unload a trailer in 2 or 3 hours. Its not brain science lol.

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    • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago

    Hollywood already writing a script.

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    [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago (14 children)

    No wine is worth 194€ a bottle. Wine is a product not a commodity. It is produced to be consumed as a drink or as an ingredient. This is a joke.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 weeks ago (13 children)

    I agree. ten dollars, maybe 20 or 40 tops. Anything above that is snobbery. Italy specializes in selling to snobs though, that is their thing.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (12 children)

    My country produces more and better wine and an average wine here costs less than 10€. A very good wine is around 30€. Any more and you get people asking if the entire process, from grape to bottle, was entirely done by hand.

    They had to create "collector" wines to inflate prices here.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (11 children)

    The best wines involve feet as I understand it, but I am a traditionalist.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

    That's the traditional way, yes, and some people, in particular people that produce mostly for themselves and in small quantities, still use it. But any winer maker that wants to put product on any wider market beyond family and friends needs scale to process tons of grapes in the shortest time possible. And that requires machinery.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago (7 children)

    Very true, and the yeast added might be better than foot yeast. It might be.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

    I live in wine country and people that avoid chemicals to make their wine don't rely on yeasts to ferment. They rely on the wild yeasts the bunches naturally carry and use fermentation time and room temperature to control the process.

    And people wash and always washed their feet before stomping the grapes. They did some nasty things but dirty feet wasn't one.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago (5 children)

    Sure, but washing feet does not mean there is no yeast there. But yes, most of the yeast is from the environment, which is why there was always the emphasis on year and region and all that.

    A lot of areas don't have good natural yeasts, like mine, in the great lakes region. You can get lucky, but most likely you will get some weak brew.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

    We have a licqueur that is essentially a nearly non fermented wine to which is added a very high alcohol content spirit, itself made by distilling the peels and stalks of the grapes after fermentation, to kill off the yeast.

    It's a nice drink to have with some roasted chestnuts.

    So, it doesn't require a strong ferment to get a nice drink. But I understand your point. Not every place in the world is good for making wine straighforward and it was a good thing we collectively learned how to select and preserve yeast strains.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago (3 children)

    I make maple syrup wine, I make maple syrup.

    It is interesting, no two batches are the same, and it's a remarkably complex flavour. I also make cheap sugar ferments most of the time because I'm not made out of money, that I distill.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    I would enjoy very much to try maple syrup one day but it is not an easy product to find here. And the wine seems like an interesting concept.

    Ever considered doing fruit based mashes and distill it? It's more involved but the hard licquour is more prone to be drank over a longer period of time than basic fermented drinks.

    But I've seen people doing "wine" from nearly any fruit, using water infused with the fuit and a lot of sugar.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    I like fruit so much I feel it's a waste to distill it, unless the fruit doesn't taste good. I made like 30 gallons of hard cider last year, (tried to, ten or more are vinegar,) but it's a weak ferment.

    Of northern fruits, only grape (which doesn't hardly even grow this far north here,) and apple have enough sugar to ferment well on their own.

    But I saw a cool video of like, hungarians or something making a liqueur out of wild cherries, on reddit before I got chased off there.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago*

    I've got a Youtube channel for you!

    I think that man could ferment old socks and shoes and the result would be drinkable. If only once...

    I tried hard cider once, using leftovers of wine fermentation, and the thing became undrinkable. Above 20% by liter. Too strong. I had to toss it out.

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