Collection of vintage wines. The famous wine collection of Massandra

You've probably traveled a lot to wine-producing countries, tasted a lot of interesting and even legendary wines, and began to think about finally acquiring your own collection.
After all, how nice it is: to go down to a wine cellar, unlock the heavy door with a key and plunge into a special world, where the passage of time is subject to different laws, where there is no noise and fuss, where it is always dark and cool, where bottles and contents are waiting in strict order on the shelves which can give you real pleasure.
Indeed, compiling a wine collection is a fascinating activity. The incentive to do so can be admiration for a friend’s collection, free funds, or a visit to a winery. However, the fundamental condition is the love of wine, a passion that can unite people regardless of their religion and nationality.
Collections can range from a few dozen examples acquired from wine merchants or on cellar tours, to thoughtfully located and specially equipped vaults containing thousands of bottles purchased at auctions and from fine wine specialists.
However, it’s not at all scary if you don’t have a real cellar; it can easily be replaced by a wine cabinet, in which you can easily place 50 bottles, or a cabinet that can accommodate from 100 to 500 copies.
But before you start filling your wine library, it’s worth understanding why you want to do this: for pleasure, investment, or both?
And the more the collector is inclined to the idea of profitable placement of finances, the more high-quality and famous the purchased wines should be.
But most of us acquire our own collection of elite drinks solely for pleasure and for friends. The exchange of bottles and opinions with like-minded connoisseurs is an integral part of wine culture and undoubtedly brings joy to life.

Step 1. Your taste

It goes without saying that your home wine collection should very clearly reflect your personal taste and lifestyle, especially if it is not too large and consists of only 50 - 60 bottles. If you're someone who loves variety and choice and also loves to travel, you'll have the potential to put together a great international collection.
It may include bottles from European, North and South American producers, drinks from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. But perhaps you prefer the classics, have a special passion for aged Bordeaux, fresh Burgundy, bright Rhone wines and the best Californian wines. And if you like to occasionally treat yourself to port with Stilton cheese, then add a few bottles of vintage port (wine made from grapes from the same year) to your collection. If you are a connoisseur of sweet wines, do not forget about Sauternes, selected German Rieslings from late-harvested grapes and Tokaji Aszú. If you like vintage bottle-aged champagne, purchase it from the great Champagne houses as they become available on the market.
A good cellar must have sparkling wines or champagne, or crémant (sparkling wine from other regions of France, produced using classic champagne technology). Champagne wines age very well. Without hesitation, they can be stored for a long time.
And in order to make a more accurate choice, you, naturally, must know what style of wines you prefer, as well as know the tastes of those whom you plan to treat.
But if you're new to collecting and aren't too sure whether you like young or aged wine, dry or sweet, strong or tart, light, floral or otherwise, don't be afraid to try wines from a wide variety of countries, regions, vintages ), grape varieties. After all, even the most experienced connoisseur will not be able to provide you with the “wine of your dreams” without knowing your tastes. And be ready to expand the list of your passions - new exciting sensations are nearby, just reach out.
You can, for example, become a member of a wine lovers club and regularly attend tastings. Or you can choose one of the wine boutiques to your liking and become its VIP client, for whom similar events are also constantly organized. Organize tastings with friends, attend wine lectures. In any case, the more you try, the better you will understand your own tastes. Record the wines you liked and those you didn’t like. Otherwise, you will have to rely entirely on the opinions of consultants, friends, and acquaintances. But since everyone's tastes are different, you may find yourself in a situation where you don't have any wines in your collection that you can actually enjoy.

Step 2: Making a List
Once you have decided on your preferences, it is much easier to create a specific list of wines that are candidates for a place in the collection.
Of course, you can write down everything you once liked there and buy this abundance of wine for your own pleasure. But it would be more correct to make a choice taking into account three main criteria. This is how, for the most part, professionals compose their collections.

Step 3. Selection Criteria
Any wine collection usually contains drinks of three main categories: wines for every day, wines for receptions and elite wines for special occasions (anniversaries, weddings, birth of a child, etc.).
Accordingly, these three groups differ fundamentally from each other, primarily in terms of storage duration, which depends on the geographical origin of the wine.
It is known that wines have completely different potential for storage and aging: some are worth drinking quickly (from six months to a year), others - from a year to three, others can be stored from 10 to 50 years and even longer.
There are quite sad cases when, out of ignorance, owners uncork a wine with brilliant characteristics, but too young, with a “closed taste”, which does not yet have the required range of shades, and... the bottle has to be emptied. However, it's even worse when you open the wine too late and feel that its best time has already passed. Therefore, it is very important to clearly know when to open a particular wine stored in your cellar.
So, wines that should be drunk fairly quickly are best suited for “everyday dining”. (In collections they usually make up about 50 - 60%.) These are inexpensive specimens. But even for short-term storage, you shouldn’t buy unremarkable drinks. Let them be interesting, high quality and individual. Among these are many local wines of France, or selected products from minor and small appellations (limited zones with a certain quality control system). In Bordeaux, for example, it is simply Bordeaux AOC or Bordeaux Superior. They do not improve their characteristics as they are stored. And if suddenly you come across such wines from 1990 or 1988, then you can say with confidence that they have already lost all the best that was in them. By the way, this is why you should not think that all products from the Bordeaux region are intended for long-term storage.
This category also includes wines with fruity, fresh tones, for example, from the Gamay variety (Beaujolais region). The attractiveness of this drink lies in the abundance of expressive fruit aromas. But they cannot be stored, since with age these shades disappear, like the charm of the wine itself.
Wines of the second category are the most common. Their prices are higher, but they are quite affordable. (Most often in collections there are no more than 20%.) Many New World wines, for example, cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, merlot from Chile, New Zealand, Australia, are usually drunk within 1 - 3 years. These wines are very fresh, with fruity tones, lively, and fatty on the palate. But after long storage, only coarse tannins and pronounced acidity remain in the bouquet; softness, roundness and fruity splendor disappear. They are made to be enjoyed while they are young.
This also includes wines from France obtained in "second rank" appellations, but located in prestigious wine regions, such as Burgundy, where each village represents an appellation. The best vineyards are located on the slopes, while the valleys produce less structured wines. So they can be stored for up to 5 years.
Wines of the third category are the most expensive. (There are 15 - 20% of them in collections). They usually come from the best sites (grand cru, premier cru) of the most prestigious appellations, where the grapes have favorable exposure to the sun and better drainage.
They are the ones that last the longest. Drinking them young is not always possible, although in recent years many truly great wines have appeared (including from Bordeaux and Burgundy), which become very pleasant to drink at an early age, almost from 1 year. But it also happens that wines from 2001 are extremely attractive now, but after a year or two they can “close down” and become completely uninteresting. Then they need to be “forgotten” in the cellar so that after 5-7 years they will reveal their potential, but with more powerful force.
No matter what metamorphoses the wine undergoes, it should be remembered that all great wines are made even better and better every year, so without a doubt you can leave them for long-term storage.
By the way, there are many such drinks for special occasions in Tuscany (Italy), for example, among wines called Brunello di Montalcino or Nobile de Montepulciano, as well as among Super Tuscan wines - “Sossicaia”, “Ornelaya”, etc. from the Bolgheri region. They can be stored for 10 to 20 years.
In principle, in almost every wine-producing country you can find “super-premium” positions with a very long life. There are such in Chile, and in New Zealand, and in Australia, and in Argentina...
Likewise, in every prestigious zone there are wines whose life expectancy is insignificant.
Within Bordeaux in particular, there are complex hierarchies in both quality and price (from one euro to several thousand). And in order not to make mistakes, you need expert advice. And although all great wines are usually “heard of”: Chateau Margaux, Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, Chateau Haut Brion, etc., there is another aspect that determines the duration of storage of the wine and its characteristics - the year of harvest ( millesim). In countries with a cool climate (Europe), they can be either too successful (2000 in Bordeaux for red varieties and 2001 in Germany for Riesling), or completely disastrous, like 2002 in Tuscany.
Don't assume that a good year for Bordeaux is also a good year for other regions. For example, 1982 was great in Bordeaux, but poor in other parts of France. But 2001 - also a very good year in the Medoc (part of Bordeaux) - moved into 2002 - not very successful overall, but quite successful for some wines from the Medoc.
And in Languedoc (southern France), Tuscany, and Cotes Du Rhone (France), 1999 was ahead of 2000. And he also showed excellent results in Burgundy. In Bordeaux, the 1997 harvest did not go well, but in the south of Italy and Tuscany it became one of the best in the last 10 years. 1996 is a very good year for Medoc and red Burgundy, outstanding for Champagne.
By studying European tables for successful harvest years, you can learn to quite accurately determine the lifespan of a particular wine: those made in the best years last longer, in the worst they end up young. But drinks from Chile or Argentina are little affected by these statistics, since the climate there is very stable and is considered successful almost every year.
There is a strong argument in favor of buying wines for a collection from famous estates, even if they sometimes cost ten times more than others. The fact is that the best winemakers, even in a bad year, will try to extract everything they can from their own vines. And if the harvest is completely unsuccessful, then they will prefer not to produce wine at all, rather than be content with a bad one and undermine their own authority. By the way, this happens often. The best wines are not produced in bad years.
You can also build your collection taking into account the grape varieties underlying the drink. For example, wines from different countries and regions, in addition to the already international cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc, are produced from local indigenous varieties, which can be so specific that they will not suit the taste of a beginner, but will delight a connoisseur.
By the way, the same varieties, but growing in different countries, can be completely different from each other, and this is why they are interesting. It is known that Italian Sauvignon Blanc wines, especially from the south, are very different from Austrian or German ones. Likewise, wines from Burgundy are not similar to their “brothers” from Provence. And the whole trick lies in the composition of the soil and climatic conditions (called in one word - “terroir”). Terroir gives wine special shades of taste and aroma, and, in fact, determines the individuality of the drink.
For those who like to experiment with wine styles, we can advise you to assemble a collection according to this criterion.
The style consists of differences in the climate of the countries where grapes grow, differences in varieties and differences in blends (mixtures of grapes), as well as features of production technology.
A style-based collection allows you to evaluate a wine based on its taste and personality. It's probably a good idea to have a variety of different styles of drinks in your cellar.
They can be classified as follows: 3 categories of red and 3 categories of white wines.

Reds
1. Well-structured and balanced red wines. This includes “straight wines” with a clear structure, in which alcohol does not dominate, its presence is not obvious. For example, Sangiovese and Chianti Classico. These wines are served with food, they are fresh, they have pronounced acidity, and a long aftertaste. And the longer and clearer it is, the better the wine will be stored.
Bordeaux wines made from merlot and cabernet can also be included in this category.
2. Characteristic, complex wines with strong individual characteristics. These are “brilliant wines” that are easy to taste. For example, good Burgundy, outstanding Piedmontese from the Barolo and Barbaresco varieties. Their structure is less linear, tannins are not immediately felt. If you're not used to it, you may be shocked by their acidity. You need to get used to these wines and learn to drink them. Not many people understand their character - full of rich fruity tones, expressive, elegant.
3. The wines are generous, filled with sunshine, and most importantly, have a roundness of taste and warmth. They are sometimes rough, but now they are becoming more and more refined. They come from California, Chile, Australia, Argentina, from Sicily, Puglia, Languedoc and Côtes du Rhône, Spain.
These wines should not be stored for a long time.

White
1. Lively and fresh wines (from the Sauvignon Blanc variety, as well as whites from the Loire or Soave wines from Italy). But they sometimes have a drawback - they are too sour.
2. Wines with a rounded taste and scope. These wines are predominantly fatty, oily in taste, and soft. Most often they come from the New World, for example, many Chardonnay, Bourgogne, Meursault. Some of them contain a sufficient amount of sugar and are therefore suitable as an aperitif.
3. Perfumed wines, for example, Viognier, Condrieu. The main thing about them is their aromatic individuality. They are suitable for special cuisine, exotic dishes.

In addition to those listed, there are some other types of drinks that simultaneously belong to several classes, for example, rose wines. They are not suitable for long-term storage and should be drunk within a year. But in this group there are exceptions that live up to 10 years.
But what can you do if you don’t read the specialized press, don’t study special sites on the Internet, don’t have time to follow producer ratings and study summary tables of harvest quality in different years in a variety of countries, starting “from the king of peas”...?
In this case, the only way out is to contact a qualified specialist or an experienced wine merchant.

Acquisition
First, a farm purchase. This is perhaps one of the best ways. At the very least, you can be sure that the wine has never left the place where it was produced and has not been adversely affected by external conditions. And this is very important.
Some collection owners prefer to buy very young wines that need aging or “en primeur” (that is, “in the future”). Since this practice involves purchasing and paying well before wines are bottled, you should always choose a supplier with an impeccable reputation.
Although in the most famous chateaus this is quite difficult, if not impossible. For such a purchase, people sign up for a waiting list for several years in advance. Moreover, there is a very clear procedure for selling elite bottles through intermediaries.
Secondly, the auction. Wine auctions are a paradise for lovers of divine nectar. The best wines in the world are sold at auctions. They are quite accessible to everyone, and not just to experts and people with astronomical income.
And even if you are a busy person, you can easily participate in the auction in absentia by sending in advance a written application for the lot you are interested in, indicating the maximum price you are willing to pay. There is no need to be afraid that you will overpay, since in most cases the rule applies: if the maximum bid in the hall is 100 conventional units lower than yours, then you will pay for the purchase just a “step” above this bid, which is usually less than 100 units (euros) or dollars).
But first, you should familiarize yourself with the catalog, which is published long before the auction and is sold inexpensively or even sent out for free. You should not think that an auction requires super knowledge or fabulous wealth. It is enough to study the catalog in detail to understand that there are many lots in it that are suitable for a novice collector. Along with outstanding wines, simply popular examples are offered. The main thing is to determine for yourself what you want to purchase and the maximum price above which you do not intend to bargain. Before the auction, you can often take part in pre-sale tastings.
Having registered and received a shovel with a number, you begin to place bets following the host, who himself chooses the starting price of the lot, taking into account the wishes of the owner. Rates are increased step by step: for inexpensive lots the step is from 2 to 10 euros; for expensive ones - at least 50. If your bid is the last, then your number is called and the auction ends. Now you can be proud - you purchased wine at auction. All that remains is to pay and take your treasure.
Well, and thirdly, of course, purchases can be made from a wine merchant or in a wine boutique. By the way, some of our supermarkets have a wide selection of wines and are equipped with wine cabinets, which can allow you to buy very decent wine without leaving the country.

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 in terms of taste, uniqueness due to small 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 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, 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.

Wine collecting– it’s not just about buying a lot of bottles. How to build a good wine collection? Let's figure it out.

Wine collectors are not born, they are made.
One day you realize that you really love wine. You buy everything you like or promises to be interesting. The average purchase starts to exceed three bottles, then you take them in boxes - and now they are already falling out of the closet and mezzanine...

Very few wine cellars look like the neat idyll that people like to print in glossy magazines. And a few of them are filled to capacity, like the secret cellars of New York's Club 21, where more than 2,000 cases of wine are stored, including the private wine collections of President Nixon, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor and other celebrities.

This is what the turning point looks like: an equally passionate but less famous winephile glances at his rickety piles of boxes and bottles scattered in every corner - and it dawns on him that he has crossed the line - he is now a collector... This is where the real work begins.

When it comes to buying expensive and rare wines, the Latin motto Caveat emptor (Latin: “The buyer must be vigilant”) is at the forefront - be it on the shelves of wine boutiques, an online store or a prestigious auction.

As the case of Rudy Kurniawan (Rudy Kurniawan, the most notorious wine counterfeiter of our time) showed, fraud is not uncommon, and provenance is the last hope and support of any collector.

Understanding this, a smart collector begins any purchase with painstaking research.

At the first stage, it makes sense to purchase several rated bottles and taste them - to compare your own impressions with the assessments of experts and critics. Those of them whose taste coincides with yours can be taken as a guide in the future. Those who have been radically diverged from can be used as an “anti-indicator.”

“The more you drink, the more you know” is the motto of Charles Curtis, a master of wine, former head of Christie's wine department for Asia and America.

Pre-trade tastings at auction houses are an excellent opportunity for novice collectors to expand their palette of tastes and their knowledge base.

However, there is a huge difference between collecting wine for yourself and investing in wine.

Storming Bordeaux

“Bordeaux is the backbone of any collection,” says Curtis.

When we say we're investing—as opposed to collecting for ourselves—wine becomes an asset like anything else.

“You have to study the subject. You'll have to look beyond the price tag - at the P/E* of the wine, if you will." Charles Curtis

*Price/Earnings ratio – price/income ratio used in stock valuation.

Prices for Cru Classe Bordeaux rose for several years before falling. And although hardly anyone believes in a return to the prices of the 1980s, when Chateau Lafite was sold for $50, we have seen a drop in prices over a three-year period - for example, according to indicators from the Liv-ex exchange (London International Vintners Exchange), which publishes several indices on the prices of collectible wines .

The Liv-ex 100 index ended March at 241 – i.e. 34% below its peak in June 2011 and just 10% above its value in July 2009. The S&P500 broad market index (an index of the 500 largest companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange) rose more than 90 over the same period %.

The dynamics of the Liv-Ex 50 indicator, which reflects the prices of the last 10 vintages of the five Bordeaux 1r Grand Crus, was negative for almost the entire last year, closing on November 20 at 264, having lost just over 8% since the beginning of the year. The FTSE 100 index (London Stock Exchange) fell just 1.6% over the same period.

In general, the principle here is the same as in the stock market - “buy cheaper, sell more expensive.” The decline in stock market indicators tells us that the latest vintages of top Bordeaux wines are now being sold at approximately the same price levels as 5 years ago.

Mr. Curtis advises: “If you're going to buy wines to cellar, always buy something more expensive than you're used to. Then, over time, you can either sell them if necessary, or drink to your success.”

The real costs of a collector

“Buying wine is fun. Selling wine is fun. It's not fun to contain wine,” says Curtis.

For those buying wine as an investment, he recommends keeping an eye on expenses such as storage and taxes.

In the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, individuals have the opportunity to store wine in a customs warehouse, which allows them to avoid paying some taxes and duties, as well as ensure proper storage conditions and ensure greater transparency of the provenance of the wine.

For those who buy wine for consumption, professional storage would also be useful, but you can do without it. Having a wine refrigerator or home cellar will be sufficient. And don’t forget to include your collection in the inventory of insured property.

According to Curtis, the situation is currently favorable for arbitrage, given the high prices in London and the States. In Hong Kong, prices are much more humane, and at the same time there are no taxes or fees. But the seller’s reputation must be impeccable! “I would not enter into a single transaction there with an individual that I do not know well,” he adds.

Some collectors generally stay away from the 1er Cru (“first five” of Bordeaux), preferring the second wines of famous chateaus, classes 3-5 (grand cru class system of 1855), unclassified Bordeaux and wines of the New World.

One such lady, who wished to remain anonymous, admitted that she prefers to hunt for promising wines no more than $50 per bottle.

“You don’t have to worry about fakes there,” she says, “I’m just looking for a wine that can surprise me. And when I find it, I take a couple of boxes at once.” Bought ten years ago for $25 per bottle of Chateau Giscours 1990 (3rd class cru class) on the Internet now goes for $113. “I don’t care about the label, I just care about the taste of what’s in the bottle.”

Joseph Rescino from U.S. Midwest laments that prices for Burgundy have become astronomical, and a bottle that he could previously afford for a couple of hundred has risen in price to several thousand.

Where to look for benefits?

Mr Curtis admits that Burgundy has always had its share of expensive positions, but is convinced that there is still something to be caught there - especially in whites. Their lively acidity and complexity make them excellent food companions. But the problem is that it is easier to buy them than to sell them later. The secondary market for wines labeled Montrachet is not that big.

For successful acquisitions, you can also turn to California. Apart from such best sellers as Screaming Eagle, Harlan and others, the local wines are not very expensive on the secondary market. Mr. Curtis admits that it is difficult to predict the resale value of a Mondavi reserve Cabernet or an estate bottling Chateau Montelana. But these wines look interesting for the price and behave well with age.

Australia also has its own star - Grange, based on the flagship variety of Shiraz for this country (produced by Penfolds).

As for prices, for a good purchase you will have to compare, compare and compare again. Get all the main reference books, monitor online stores and don’t shy away from exploring retail shelves - so as not to overpay for wines, focusing on their “estimate” in auction catalogues.

The basic rule remains banally simple: “Information is everything.” And useful acquaintances are never superfluous here;)

Apr. 2015 /Using materials from wine-searcher.com

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 registered - 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.
- The wine must have an optimal temperature so that the taste can be revealed 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 while.
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.

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 intended 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

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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