Stay up to date with notifications from The IndependentNotifications can be managed in browser preferences.AllNewsSportCultureLifestyleThe collection includes some 40,000 bottles (Reuters)A vast wine collection, once belonging to Josef Stalin, has been unsealed in Tbilisi, Georgia, for the first time. The collection comprises approximately 40,000 French and Georgian wines, with some bottles dating back to the early 19th century. Many of the wines were originally part of Russia's Imperial Romanov collection, seized by the Soviets after the 1917 revolution, with Stalin later adding his preferred Georgian varieties. The Georgian government plans to auction the rarities to fund a new wine education school in the country. This initiative aims to elevate Georgia's profile in the global wine collecting community, leveraging its 8,000-year winemaking history. In fullStalin’s secret wine cellar of 40,000 bottles unsealed for first timeThank you for registeringPlease refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in

Some of the bottles date back to the early 1800s and once belonged to Tsar Alexander III

Stay up to date with notifications from The IndependentNotifications can be managed in browser preferences.AllNewsSportCultureLifestyleThe collection includes some 40,000 bottles…

Aperto il caveau con etichette che risalgono alla collezione dello zar Alessandro III, di cui i sovietici si impossessarono dopo la rivoluzione russa: i proventi delle vendite…

Tra etichette francesi e georgiane, vini dei Romanov e bottiglie dell’Ottocento, la raccolta custodita del leader sovietico sarà venduta per sostenere la formazione nel settore…

Deep beneath the streets of Tbilisi, behind heavy doors and years of silence, sits a collection that few people have ever seen. Dust-covered bottles.

"Ik heb het gevoel dat je Indiana Jones bent die een grot opent: het kan niets zijn, het kan iets zijn", aldus een enthousiaste verzamelaar uit Amerika.