Deep within a vault in Tbilisi, Georgia, a remarkable wine collection once owned by Josef Stalin has been unsealed for the first time this week. The Georgian government, now the custodian of this extraordinary repository, plans to auction off the roughly 40,000 French and Georgian rarities, some dating back to the early 19th century.
Proceeds from the sale are earmarked to establish a new wine education school in Georgia. Irakli Gilauri, owner of Gilauri Wines, who collaborated with the country's agriculture ministry on the initiative, said that the auction would help to 'put Georgia on the collectors' map'.
Stalin, born to a poor Georgian family in Gori, was an enthusiastic wine drinker and collector. His trove includes wine from Bordeaux's most famous estates that were once owned by Russia's Tsar Alexander III and his son Nicholas II. The Soviets seized the Imperial Romanov collection after the 1917 Russian Revolution, and Stalin became its guardian, slowly adding his favourite Georgian varieties.
Collector Victor Chen, who travelled to Tbilisi from Dallas, Texas, was excited by what he saw. 'I feel like you're Indiana Jones opening up a cave: it could be nothing, it could be something,' he said. 'There's not many things that are still historical moments at this point. And this could be one of them.'
