Italian police are now on the hunt of thieves who stole rare bottles of wine from a Milan restaurant (file photos)
In truth there is wine, in theft there is punishment.
Such is an old Italian saying applicable to a June 14 heist of an exceptional wine.
In broad daylight, thieves disguised as construction workers stole rare bottles of Romanée-Conti wine worth an estimated €280,000 ($324,405) from a restaurant in Milan.
Italian police are now on the hunt of thieves who stole rare bottles of wine from a Milan restaurant (file photos)
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Disguised Thieves
The theft occurred at Affinatore, one of the finest restaurants in Italy’s second largest city. According to reports, the suspects wore hard hats and high-visibility construction vests to blend into the urban landscape.
Security cameras allegedly captured the crooks cutting through reinforced glass, removing the prized bottles, concealing them in a toolbox, and calmly walking away as if nothing had happened.
Italy's second biggest city—Milan—locale of a recent wine heist
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Rare Vintage
Romanée-Conti is one of the most celebrated wines in the world, produced in Burgundy, France. The specific vineyard covers only about 4.5 acres for limited production. Individual bottles can sell for tens of thousands of dollars, while exceptional vintages have fetched hundreds of thousands at international auctions. Possessing a bottle of Romanée-Conti is considered a badge of prestige.
The thieves who stole bottles of Romanée-Conti will have to overcome some unique challenges to profit from the heist. Unlike ordinary consumer goods, many rare wines can be traced through serial numbers, auction records, import documentation, and provenance histories. A collector spending tens of thousands of dollars on a bottle typically demands proof that it is authentic and legally obtained.
So what happens to stolen wine of this caliber?
A plague at the small vineyard in Bergundy, France
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Wine Black Market
Investigators and wine experts note that luxury wines often enter a shadowy secondary market. Wealthy collectors may purchase bottles privately at discounted prices. Criminal networks that traffic in stolen jewelry, watches, artwork, and other luxury goods sometimes handle rare wines as well. Another concern is counterfeiting. Empty Romanée-Conti bottles can themselves be valuable, as criminals have been known to refill them with ordinary wine to sell them as genuine.
Some stolen bottles may never resurface at all. Like stolen works of art, their value is immense, but converting them into cash can be difficult. Occasionally, they are simply consumed by those who acquire them, disappearing forever.
Perhaps the most telling detail of the Milan theft is that the thieves reportedly ignored many other valuable wines and focused specifically on Romanée-Conti. That suggests this was no random burglary. Whoever planned the operation knew exactly what they were looking for.
The crime serves as a reminder that the world’s finest wines have become targets much like fine art, luxury watches, and precious jewels. In this case, the prize just happened to come from a small French vineyard whose name has become synonymous with perfection in a bottle.
As the Italian police continue their investigation, wine lovers around the world will be watching closely to see whether the stolen treasure ever resurfaces—or whether these rare bottles vanish with a fine meal among celebratory criminals.
The exterior of Affinatore in Milan, the target of a recent theft involving some of the world's most valuable wines. (Google Street View)
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Editor's Note:
The web site for the carabinieri is https://www.carabinieri.it
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