The Government of Georgia plans to auction Joseph Stalin’s wine collection, which comprises approximately 40,000 rare samples of French and Georgian wines. A portion of the proceeds will be allocated to establishing a wine education school in the country. To prepare for the auction, the wine cellar in Tbilisi, which houses the collection and includes bottles dating back to the early 19th century, has been opened for the first time. Irakli Gilauri, the owner of Gilauri Wines and a collaborator with Georgia’s Ministry of Agriculture on the project, emphasized their intention to attract international collectors’ attention to Georgian winemaking.
Georgia positions itself as the birthplace of wine, with a winemaking history spanning approximately 8,000 years. The collection once belonged to Joseph Stalin, a Georgian by origin and the head of the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1953, who held an interest in rare wines. Among the collection are samples from reputable Bordeaux wine estates that previously belonged to Emperor Alexander III and his son, Nicholas II. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, the Soviet authorities confiscated the imperial collection, which Stalin subsequently safeguarded and enriched with Georgian wines. Collector Victor Chen from Dallas, Texas, noted the rarity of such finds and their potential historical significance.
The exact date of the auction has not yet been announced. Still, preparations are ongoing, and the project is seen as an opportunity to boost interest in Georgia’s winemaking heritage.