The largest producer of wine in occupied Crimea – the Massandra state company - put up about 13 thousand bottles of vintage wines of harvest starting from 1935 and ending with 2005 for sale. Interfax-Ukraine reports about that referring to the press service of the company applying for the Massandra brand.
"It's not just wine, these bottles are special items. Those pearls have gone through severe trials, for example, during the war," - quoted the press service the chief of the collection wine sale department Elena Batrak.
Among the wines that you can buy there is, for example "White Muscat best selected" of 1944 (grapes in Yalta, liberated from the Nazis, were sorted out by hand and processed on a grater), "Madera Koktebel" and "Madera Alushta" (such Madera is no longer produced), rare wine of the harvest in 1948 "Pedro Krimsky".
There are also a few brands presented just by two or five bottles.
"We do not set a goal to sell a collection of Massandra. On the contrary, we will do everything to preserve it for science, for future generations. We have selected only those wines, the sale of which does not affect the value of the collection," - said the General Director of Massandra Yanina Pavlenko.
As reported, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine intends to start production of wines under the Massandra brand in the Ukrainian factories to save the brand of Ukraine. In December 2015 bottling of sparkling wines started under the Novyi Svet brand at the Kharkov factory of sparkling wines. The occupation administration of the Crimean factory, calling itself "Massandra "state-owned" company, intends to appeal against the decision of Ukraine in the court. It is not reported how they are going to do it as the international community does not recognize the annexation of Crimea by Russia and, therefore, re-subordination of Ukrainian enterprises to invaders.