Blogger Sergei Anashkevich writes:
This collection is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the greatest treasury of wines due to the large number of names and their uniqueness. During the war years, she was evacuated from Crimea on an emergency basis. Numbered bottles were given preference over people, factory equipment, and museum exhibits. The collection has survived several difficult historical periods, and has been preserved almost in its original form to this day.
Anyone who knows about wine can see truly unique examples here, some of which can only be found in these cellars.
Part of the collection is available for inspection by visitors to the Massandra winery, but its most valuable part is inaccessible to the average tourist. This is the part you can see in this post...
The very idea of creating a wine collection was due to the fact that old wines are impeccable from the point of view taste qualities, uniqueness due to insignificant production volumes and ecology. All this led to the fact that wines began to be stored for long periods, even in significant quantities. There was an interest in rare wines, in wines of affection, in wines from a particular vintage. This is how entire collections of old wines began to be created.
The Massandra collection is one of the largest, richest and most famous collections in the world. The beginning of the collection is associated with the name of L. S. Golitsyn. With great taste, stubbornly, sparing neither effort nor money, he collected for his collection all the best that he found in all the wine cellars of the world. In addition, starting from 1897, small quantities of all the wines that Massandra itself produced began to be included in this collection.
The Massandra collection has always been, without exaggeration, a historical relic of Russian winemaking, a treasury of the work of thousands of people, in which each bottle, like a book, has its own content, its own authors and its own history. Many brands of wine are represented by a very small number of bottles.
The collection contains dozens of standards of century-old Massandra drinks and many European countries. In 1941, when the Great War began Patriotic War, "Massandra" through the heroic efforts of workers and specialists in very short time prepared and sent by sea to, and then to the rear, thousands of wine bottles, which returned to the walls of the plant only four years later.
Now the enoteca is located in 10 galleries and has about 1 million bottles of unique collectible wines. Here, at a considerable depth, the temperature is always the same - 4-14°C.
There are deep stone niches in the gallery walls. Each of them contains up to 300 bottles of wine of a certain brand.
The Massandra collection fund consists of three parts:
1. The museum fund, which is discussed in this post and which is of great value. The wines contained in it can be called “rarities”. This fund will be stored forever, for posterity, as an assortment collection. Wines made from it are not sold.
2. Advertising, research and educational fund - created for participation in salons, auctions and exhibitions; to study changes in wines during long-term storage in bottles; as well as to train and familiarize winemakers with unique samples of wines and the processes that occur during the ripening and aging of these divine drinks.
3. Commercial fund
All bottles are sealed with an “extra” cork stopper (the stopper is filled with sealing wax) and laid in a horizontal position without access to air. The external condition of the bottles is checked systematically, and the cork is replaced every 15-20 years. In the dungeons, the bottle is covered with a coating - “the noble dust of centuries”, which serves as a kind of passport for the bottle and gives a certain charm. Therefore, wiping and rearranging bottles in the collection is strictly prohibited.
Each bookmark has its own passport, which contains all the data about the wine, its quantity and the dates when the bottles were re-corked.
By the way, there is a device that is designed specifically for re-corking processes. To be more precise, it is used for crimping plugs that need to be sealed to reduce the diameter. The thing is that the necks of bottles from different years can differ quite greatly in internal diameter and selecting a cork for several copies is quite problematic. Therefore, it is crimped to fit the desired diameter.
Rare samples from the collection include wines from foreign countries:
1. Muscat "" harvest 1828.
2. Sherry "India" vintage 1870
3. Marsala "Floria" and Chateau "Iquem" vintage 1865
4. Muscat “Lunel” and Sherry “Pajaret” vintage 1848
5. Madera "Ribeiro Secco" vintage 1837
6. “Portuguese” sherry, vintage 1847
7. Muscat “Tunisian”, Sherry “Santa Maria”, Sherry “Gloria”, Port wine “Consular” vintage 1830
8. The oldest unique wine is “Sherry de la Frontera” from the 1775 harvest.
You will see most of them in this post.
In the meantime, I propose to look at some of the most interesting examples of the collection from younger to older wines.
By the way, during the occupation of Crimea by the Germans, the Massandra plant continued to operate. Some of the wines bottled in 1942-1943 can also be seen in the collection.
Look how bottles of the same brands of wine sometimes differ.
On some bottles you can see numbers painted in white paint. This is a surviving evacuation marking.
Collecting wine is not only a hobby, but also science, investment, and aesthetics. The ability to choose the right bottle of wine, provide the necessary storage conditions and not miss the peak increase in its value is not only difficult, but also exciting. This is partly why collectors and the collections themselves deserve a separate article.
The main criteria for the cost of wine, like good cognac, is its ripening and storage time. The ripening period is very individual and depends on:
- varieties of berries;
- year of harvest and quality of the crop;
- taste characteristics of grapes;
- areas where a particular variety grows.
Determining the quality of the crop is a separate problem. To do this, it is necessary to analyze the map of millezims, which display the ratings of drinks according to the region and date of manufacture. This is the only way to predict more or less successful years for wine-growing regions.
Why is it so important to evaluate crop quality? It's simple. Successful fees allow the wine to mature longer, thereby causing an increase in cost.
What does a new wine collector need to know?
- Buy new wine after predicting its future cost.
- Equip a place to store your collection and wait until the cost of a particular brand of drink increases several times.
After that, all that remains is to find a buyer.
How is the collection itself formed? There are several ways here:
- buy the drink you are interested in from a foreign merchant company that specializes in selling collection wines, or from the manufacturing plant itself;
- purchase wines from companies importing drinks into Russia. In this case, you will have to rely on personal knowledge and experience;
- turn to a sommelier for help, who will be able to select the best options for collecting for you.
It is important to remember that it is not enough to buy just one bottle of the collectible drink. It is best to purchase them in small batches of 6-8 pieces. The collection itself can consist of one bottle or several. It all depends only on your perseverance and financial capabilities.
It is worth keeping in mind that not every wine can be included in a specific collection. There is only one main rule for selecting the wheat from the chaff - the wine must be vintage, that is, it must be made from a certain grape variety, a specific year and area of growth.
The most famous wine collections
Becoming a collector is not an easy task. However, no one bothers you to try your luck, because you can always buy a bottle of young and promising wine in
Preparation of moonshine and alcohol for personal use
absolutely legal!
After the collapse of the USSR, the new government stopped the fight against moonshine. Criminal liability and fines were abolished, and the article banning the production of alcohol-containing products at home was removed from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. To this day, there is not a single law that prohibits you and me from engaging in our favorite hobby - preparing alcohol at home. This is evidenced by the Federal Law of July 8, 1999 No. 143-FZ “On Administrative Responsibility legal entities(organizations) and individual entrepreneurs for offenses in the field of production and circulation of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products" (Collected Legislation Russian Federation, 1999, N 28, art. 3476).
Extract from the Federal Law of the Russian Federation:
“The effect of this Federal Law does not apply to the activities of citizens (individuals) producing products containing ethyl alcohol for purposes other than sale.”
Moonshining in other countries:
In Kazakhstan in accordance with the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Administrative Offenses dated January 30, 2001 N 155, the following liability is provided. Thus, according to Article 335 “Manufacture and sale alcoholic drinks home-made” illegal production of moonshine, chacha, mulberry vodka, mash and other alcoholic beverages for the purpose of sale, as well as the sale of these alcoholic beverages, entails a fine in the amount of thirty monthly calculation indices with confiscation of alcoholic beverages, apparatus, raw materials and equipment for their production, and also money and other valuables received from their sale. However, the law does not prohibit the preparation of alcohol for personal use.
In Ukraine and Belarus things are different. Articles No. 176 and No. 177 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses provide for the imposition of fines in the amount of three to ten tax-free minimum wages for the production and storage of moonshine without the purpose of sale, for the storage of devices* for its production without the purpose of sale.
Article 12.43 repeats this information almost word for word. “Production or acquisition of strong alcoholic beverages (moonshine), semi-finished products for their production (mash), storage of apparatus for their production” in the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Administrative Offenses. Point No. 1 states: “Manufacturing individuals strong alcoholic drinks (moonshine), semi-finished products for their production (mash), as well as storage of devices* used for their production - entail a warning or a fine of up to five basic units with confiscation of these drinks, semi-finished products and devices.”
*Purchase moonshine stills for home use is still possible, since their second purpose is to distill water and obtain components for natural cosmetics and perfumes.
This collection is included in the Guinness Book of Records as the greatest treasury of wines in terms of its abundance and uniqueness. During the war, it was evacuated from Crimea on an emergency basis and numbered bottles were given preference over people, factory equipment and museum exhibits. The collection has survived several difficult historical periods, and it has been preserved almost completely to this day.
Those who know wine can see truly unique wines here, some of which can only be seen in these cellars.
Part of the collection is available for inspection by visitors to the Massandra winery, but its most valuable part is inaccessible to the average tourist. This is the part you can see in this post...
2. The very idea of creating a wine collection was due to the fact that old wines are impeccable in terms of both taste and uniqueness due to insignificant production volumes and ecology. All this led to the fact that wines began to be stored for long periods, even in significant quantities. There was an interest in rare wines, in wines of affection, in wines of certain vintages. This is how entire collections of old wines are created.
The Massandra collection is one of the largest, richest and most famous collections in the world. The beginning of the collection is associated with the name of L. S. Golitsyn. With great taste, stubbornly, sparing neither effort nor money, he collected for his collection all the best that he found in all the wine cellars of the world. In addition, starting from 1897, small quantities of all the wines that Massandra itself produced began to be included in this collection. 
3. The Massandra collection has always been, without exaggeration, a historical relic of domestic winemaking, a treasury of the work of thousands of people, in which each bottle, like a book, has its own content, its own authors and its own history. Many wine brands are available in very few bottles.
The collection contains dozens of standards of century-old drinks from Massandra and many European countries. In 1941, when the Great Patriotic War began, Massandra, through the heroic efforts of workers and specialists, in a very short time prepared and sent by sea to Novorossiysk, and then to the deep rear of thousands wine bottles, which returned to the factory walls only four years later.
Now the enoteca is located in 10 galleries and has about one million bottles of unique collection wines of over 800 names. Here, at a considerable depth, the temperature is always the same - 4-14 "C. 
4. Deep stone niches are equipped in the walls of the gallery. Each of them contains up to 300 bottles of wine of a certain brand. 
5. The Massandra collection fund consists of three parts:
1. The museum fund, which is discussed in this post and which is of great value. The wines contained in it can be called “rarities”. This fund will be stored forever, for posterity, as an assortment collection. The wines from it are not for sale.
2. Advertising and research fund and educational fund - created for participation in salons, auctions and exhibitions; to study changes in wines during long-term storage in bottles; as well as to train and familiarize winemakers with unique samples of wines and the processes that occur during the ripening and aging of these divine drinks.
3. Commercial fund 
6. All bottles are sealed with an “extra” cork stopper (the stopper is filled with sealing wax) and laid in a horizontal position without access to air inside. The external condition of the bottles is checked systematically, and every 15-20 years the stopper is replaced. In the dungeons, the bottle is covered with a coating of “noble” dust of centuries", which serves as a kind of passport for the bottle and creates a certain charm. Therefore, wiping and rearranging bottles in the collection is strictly prohibited. 
7. Each bookmark has its own passport, which contains all the data about the wine, quantity and dates when the bottles were re-corked. 
8. By the way, the device that needed to be guessed yesterday is designed specifically for re-corking processes. To be more precise, it is used for crimping plugs that need to be sealed to reduce the diameter. The thing is that the neck of bottles from different years can differ quite greatly in internal diameter and selecting a cork for several copies is quite problematic. Therefore, it is crimped to fit the desired diameter. 
9. Rare samples from the collection include wines from foreign countries:
1. Muscat "Barcelona" vintage 1828.
2. Sherry "India" vintage 1870
3. Marsala "Floria" and Chateau "Iquem" vintage 1865
4. Muscat "Lunel" and Sherry "Pajaret" vintage 1848
5. Madeira "Ribeiro Secco" vintage 1837
6. Sherry "Portuguese" vintage 1847
7. Muscat "Tunisian", Sherry "Saita Maria", Sherry "Gloria", Port "Consular" vintage 1830
8. The oldest unique wine is “Sherry de la Frontera” from the 1775 vintage.
You will see most of them in this post.
In the meantime, I propose to look at some of the most interesting examples of the collection from younger to older wines 
10.
11.
12. By the way, during the occupation of Crimea by the Germans, the Massandra plant did not stand still and continued to operate.
Some of the wines bottled in 1942-1943 can also be seen in the collection 
13.
14.
15.
16. Look how bottles of the same brands of wine sometimes differ 
17.
18. On some bottles you can see numbers painted in white paint. This is a surviving evacuation marking. 
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35. On some bottles produced before the Revolution, you can see special marks.
These wines were intended for His Majesty's cellars. 
36. The brand is larger 
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49. Below are the most rare and rare pieces of the collection 
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57. And this is the oldest wine in the collection 
58.
My previous photo reports and photo stories:
Collection wines are distinguished by the highest quality and special aging and storage technology. This composition ferments in special barrels, after which the wine is bottled and the drink continues to age for at least three more years. For storage, special rooms and basements are allocated, called “enoteca”. Winemakers start a journal in which all resulting bottles are recorded - a catalog of collection wines, where they indicate the year the drink was made, grape variety, condition and type of wine. The year of harvest and the weather conditions of this time period can radically affect the taste and quality of the wine - of course, only a true connoisseur can distinguish them. But he will immediately be able to tell how the collectible French Sauvignon wine from the 1976 harvest differs from a similar drink produced, say, in 1999. He just needs to try and smell the composition.
A certain temperature is maintained in the basement, bottles are regularly inspected for damage - broken ones are removed, caps in leaking ones are replaced with new ones, filling them with resin.
Collection red wine, like white wine, is practically a living organism that is capable of ripening, reaching the peak of its condition, aging and dying. Experts are of the opinion that the best wine is obtained after 12-16 years of aging, and after 20 it begins to gradually fade. The only exception is the drink sherry, which can be stored for centuries without losing its taste, and even becoming more beautiful.
Collection wines in Moscow, and throughout the world, are a real treasure and are of historical, scientific and practical value. They can tell you about brands, producers and winemakers that no longer exist.
A special subtle taste, characteristic recognition and incredible aroma - these are all collection wines. The prices for such drinks are not affordable, but the products are in persistently high demand, because the high quality and rarity of the drink is not the first thing here.
The main thing when drinking collectible vintage wines is the ability to “understand” their bouquet, feel all the versatility of the drink, be able to enjoy the smell and feel the subtle aftertaste. Alas, this is not given to everyone, but only to those who really know how to appreciate collection wine. Buying a bottle of good wine in Moscow is also seen as a wise financial investment, because its value will only increase over the years.
It is important to know how to properly serve and drink an exquisite drink.
- Wine must have optimal temperature, so the taste can reveal itself most fully. Collection white wines with citrus, spicy and neutral flavor tones are served at a temperature of 8-12 degrees, and red wines at 16-18.
- - After opening the bottle, do not rush to pour the drink right away, give it a few minutes to “breathe” and become saturated with oxygen - this will also have a beneficial effect on the taste.
- - The right dishes are the key to great pleasure. A wide glass, slightly narrowed at the top, is exactly the vessel that will allow the aroma to accumulate and prevent the aromatic vapors from disappearing.
- - Do not pour a full glass - just fill it a third and let the aroma saturate the air in the vessel.
It is worth noting that many collection wines form sediment at the bottom of the bottle, the so-called “shirt”. There is no need to be afraid of sediment, because this is a sign of venerable age and high quality of the drink. If you are lucky enough to buy a collection of red wine, do not start drinking it immediately after carrying it - let the liquid settle for a bit.
The site offers a collection of wines store to touch the enchanting world of limited edition divine drinks. The collection wines that are presented in our assortment will not disappoint you, because they undergo several stages of testing and are stored in conditions that promote the preservation and improvement of organoleptic properties.
