Legendary Crimean winemaker auctions vintages up to 80 years old, riling Kiev
Winery that once supplied Russian tsar is in territory which was Ukrainian until Russia annexed it in 2014, and Kiev threatens sanctions for collectors who buy any of the 13,000 bottles for sale
Legendary Crimean winemaker Massandra, once a supplier to Russia’s Tsar Nicolas II, has provoked the ire of Kiev by putting 13,000 vintage bottles up for auction.
One 1944 muscat “was produced in Yalta just after its liberation from German troops”, it noted in a statement launching the sale, which is being held at the winery and online.
The Massandra region, which belonged to the Ukrainian state until the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia, is now under Moscow’s control with the rest of the peninsula.
Kiev immediately reacted to the sale, threatening a criminal probe over “squandering Ukrainian heritage”, said Olexandre Liev, a Ukrainian agriculture ministry official.
Liev warned, “We want Russian and foreign collectors to realise that they could face international sanctions for illegal economic actions in annexed Crimea” if they buy the prized wines.
