Reds from the Tsars' cellars to go under the hammer

[emad]

The Telegraph
By Will Bennett, Art Sales Correspondent
(Filed: 09/10/2004)

Every year as the bitter Russian winter receded the Tsars took the imperial family to their summer palace in the Crimea where they relaxed away from the pressures of power and entertained guests on the shores of the Black Sea.

The Tsar's wine cellar was bricked up tunnels built in the 1890s
At Livadia, their palace near Yalta, they held extravagant parties, celebrated communion in the imperial chapel and sometimes dined as a family, surrounded only by their personal servants. Wine was an integral part of their daily lives.

The Massandra winery in the Crimea was built in the 19th century to supply the needs of the Tsars' court and became legendary in Russia for its strong, sweet wines with a distinctive full flavour, utterly different from those produced in Western Europe and the New World.

Now some of the wines produced for the Tsars, many in bottles bearing the imperial seal and all of which survived both the Communist revolution and Nazi invasion, are to be auctioned at Sotheby's in London on Dec 3 when they are expected to fetch more than £500,000. They will include five bottles of the rich, sweet Seventh Heaven, produced in 1880 by the Tsar's winemaker, Prince Lev Sergervich Golitzin, which should sell for £1,200 to £1,600 each.
More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/09/nwine09.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/10/09/ixhome.html