UNITED KINGDOM / FILE: Rare bottles of Crimean wine from the Tsar's cellars sold in London

Record ID: 721418

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM / FILE: Rare bottles of Crimean wine from the Tsar's cellars sold in London
  • Date: 30th November 2007
  • Summary: (CEEF) YALTA REGION, UKRAINE (FILE - OCTOBER 2004) (REUTERS) CRIMEAN MOUNTAIN WINE REGION GRAPES IN MASSANDRA VINEYARD GRAPES HANGING ON VINES VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF MASSANDRA WINERY VARIOUS OF BOTTLES OF 1841 WINE IN MASSANDRA COLLECTION
  • Embargoed: 15th December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAD06CN59NT2C4I0HU6393M6A9C
  • Story Text: Wine collectors enjoyed a glimpse- and a taste- of unique Russian wine as items from the Tsar's cellars went on sale in one of London's biggest auction houses. Bonhams, the world's oldest auction house on Wednesday (November 28) sold a remarkable collection of wines from the Imperial winery at Massandra, in the Crimea.
    The sale included wines from the Imperial era, embossed with the seal of the Tsar, as well as many notable vintages from the first half of the 20th Century. The wines occupy a special place in Russia's cultural heritage having witnessed - and survived - some of the most turbulent events in the country's troubled past.
    Completed in 1897, Massandra is the oldest of Russian wineries. Each year, it produces over four million bottles of wine and exports over half of them. The winery is surrounded by its vineyards and stores its wine in seven tunnels each over 150 meters long that cut under the Crimean mountains.
    Bonhams hosted a special wine tasting evening on Tuesday (November 27, where guests had a rare opportunity to taste various vintages from the Massandra wines.

    "We've got as I mentioned, the Levadia 1891 with the Tsar's seal, obviously that's, the bottle is very rare because of that seal. But these are both, that and the 1896 are red port, again made to copy the style of the Portuguese port," said Richard Harvey, the European head of wine at Bonhams.

    "So, this is the 1955 Massandra sherry. And as you can see it's a fantastic colour, lovely golden yellow brown colour. The aroma is very classically sherry style, although obviously it's not a sherry, it comes from Crimea. It's very typical of sherry style, very nutty, caramel aroma,"
    Harvey said.
    The London sale included a wide range of wines - a bottle of Prince Golitzin's Seventh Heaven, produced in 1880 was sold for 3,220 British Pounds (6,550 USD). One bottle of Prince Golitzin's Honey of Altae Pastures 1886 was sold for 1,725 Pounds (3,550 USD).
    One of the items sold in the auction - a bottle of Livadia Red Liqueur Wine - fetched more than 4,500 British Pounds (9,300 U.S Dollars) .
    It is not the first time the Massandra wines are being sold outside of Ukraine, but this time they are sold at a different auction house.

    "Before this auction we used to sell our wines at Sotheby's, but this time around we decided to come to Bonhams. The main difference is that Bonhams is one hundred per cent an English auction house as opposed to Christie's and Sotheby's which are more American," said Sergey Foster, Massandra representative in the UK.

    "The selection of wines was a joint process between the Bonhams auction house - since they know the market and which type of wines would sell best here, and of course between the Massandra - which with the permission from the government needs to be quite selective in choosing the types of wines which are allowed to be sold, because the collection of Massandra wines is precious," he added.
    The collection of Massandra wines are sold in two separate sales, the first at Bonhams and the second will go on sale in San Francisco on December 1st.
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