June 2, 2026 / 10:33 AM EDT
/ CBS/AFP
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Eight bottles of a legendary French wine that survived World War II and decades of communist rule hidden under a Czech castle floor have been lovingly restored by the chateau that produced them some 130 years ago.The bottles of Chateau d'Yquem — one of the world's most expensive, highly prized sweet white wines — are a part of a collection of 136 bottles discovered at the western Czech castle of Becov nad Teplou in the 1980s, slated to go on display in the future.The collection once belonged to the noble Beaufort-Spontin family, who left the old Czechoslovakia hastily at the end of the war when they were suspected of having collaborated with the Nazis.The wine spent decades hidden under the floorboards of the castle chapel alongside the iconic Reliquary of St. Maurus — which is said to hold the bones of St. John the Baptist — before communist secret police found them decades later.But while the shrine was taken to Prague at once to undergo extensive reconstruction before returning to Becov to be displayed in 2002, the wine was left where it was.In 1984, the family asked an American businessman, Danny Douglas, to secretly get the hidden wine back, the Reuters news agency reported. During the permit process, police realized what Douglas was looking for, leading to the collection's ultimate discovery.Ten years ago, the wine was found and a painstaking rescue operation began.
