The eastern European country has a long history of producing wine.
Lev Golitsyn and Mikhail Vorontsov were early winemakers.
The world is focused on Ukraine. Since wine is what I write about, I wanted to learn more about the traditions of the country. What a history there is.
The country's wine culture dates back to the 4th century BC. In the time between then and its more modern development, a document translated from Russian poetically notes thatStormy historical moments in the life of the winegrower and more than once threatened the complete destruction of plantings. When fate smiled at it again after adversity, the ancient Crimean winemaking developed again.
Today that is relevant.
In Europe, monks cultivated vineyards in the 11th century, and some historical documents show a Genoese influence on winemaking during an occupation in the 13th century. It wasn't until the early 19th century that winemaking became a significant venture, thanks to Prince Mikhail Vorontsov. The former Magaratch Wine Research Institute in Yalta was established by him, as well as his estates at Ai-Danil, Gurzuf and Massandra. The successor institute is a Russian-controlled center.
The cellars of Vorontsov were where grapes from small growers were bottled and sold.
Czar Nicholas II is in the vineyards.
The Russian Imperial family charged another countryman, Lev Golitsyn, with furthering winemaking in the region after selling his estates to the Russian Imperial family. Czar Nicholas II wanted a ready supply of wine for his summer palace, so he commissioned an amateur archaeologist to build a cellar. He created a network of underground tunnels that held 25,000 liters of wine in barrels and a million bottles. He made sparkling wine and cultivated 600 grape varieties.
Golitsyn had a personal cellar of 50,000 bottles. He was said to have developed the industry so that ordinary people wouldn't poison themselves with wine.
Massandra's wines have long been revered by statesmen, and the historic winery still stands today, near the resort town of Yalta. Several Jerez de la sherries dating from 1775 were once the repository of some of the world's most precious bottles. In 1990, some 13,000 bottles of Crimean dessert and fortified wine produced from the 1830s to 1945 sold for more than $1 million at an auction.
The winery is a survivor of many political conflicts.
The cellars were protected under a 1936 law after it was nationalized in 1922. In John Baker's 2020 book, Stalin's Wine Cellar, it is stated that Joseph Stalin safeguarded the winery from a Nazi loot, removing some 60,000 bottles to Georgia and other locations. The winery was exempt from Gorbachev's vine pull scheme, which was meant to combat alcoholism in the Soviet Union.
Massandra is a different country than the Vatican in Italy, according to the former director general.
The winery is historic.
In recent years, Massandra's uncertain fate has been similar to that of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia.
Russian prosecutors filed fraud charges against Boyko. His successor,Yanina Pavlenko, was investigated for swindling after opening another bottle of that 1775 sherry, which was said to be worth more than $90,000, for Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Ukrainian prosecutors alleged that a Ukrainian presidential decree required permission to gift such a bottle and uncork it. Since Russian control of Massandra was at the time, that may have been a problem. When she announced her bid for the Yalta city administration in 2020, she was still Massandra's director.
In December, Massandra was sold at an auction for $72.4 million to the Yuzhny Project, a subsidiary of the Rossiya Bank. The bank is owned by a man who is said to be an associate of Putin. The winery had been sold, according to the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. At its peak, Massandra produced 10 million bottles a year, but the production facilities were not as good as they used to be.
The country would initiate sanctions and a lawsuit over the sale, according to some Ukrainian press outlets.
The deputy prime minister and minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories said that this creates risks for Massandra, which is part of the cultural heritage of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Crimea. The most valuable assets will be stolen if the enterprise is destroyed. They will have to answer for this.
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