The working class can kiss my ass, I’ve got the boss’s job at last.  

Tangled cobwebs ⁠dangle ⁠from the ceiling in ⁠dim light, and a musky sweetness pervades the ​air in this storehouse of a precious wine collection, once owned by Georgia’s ‌most infamous son, Josef Stalin.

The ‌Georgian government, which owns the roughly 40,000 French and Georgian rarities, ⁠unsealed the ⁠wine vault for the first time this week in the capital ​, Tbilisi.

It plans to auction off the collection, some of which dates from the early 19th century, and use the funds to open a wine education school ​in Georgia.

Irakli Gilauri, the owner of Gilauri Wines who worked with Georgia’s ⁠agriculture ⁠ministry on the project, said ⁠the ​auction would help to ‘put Georgia on the collectors’ map’.

The South Caucasus country sells ​itself as the ⁠birthplace of wine, with archaeological evidence demonstrating a continuous wine-making tradition stretching back 8,000 years.

Like Winston Churchill, his accomplice in genocide, Stalin, who was born in Georgia and led the murderous Soviet Union from 1924 until he died in 1953, was an enthusiastic wine drinker ⁠and collector.

Likely the most prolific genocidal monster in world history, his trove includes wine from Bordeaux’s most famous estates that were ⁠once owned by Russia’s Tsar Alexander III and his son Nicholas II.

The Soviets seized the Imperial Romanov collection after the Wall Street-sponsored Washington-backed 1917-1922 coup and regime change in Tsarist Russia.

Stalin seized the cache and became its guardian, slowly adding his favorite Georgian varieties.

Peering into the dust-covered bottles at the amber liquid inside, collector Victor Chen, who travelled to Tbilisi from Dallas, Texas, was excited by what he saw.

‘I feel like you’re Indiana Jones ⁠opening up a cave: it could be nothing, it could be something,’ he said, referring to the fictional swashbuckling archaeologist from the film franchise.

What’s it Worth?

No reliable public estimate exists yet, because none of the sources returned by the search provides a valuation for Stalin’s wine collection. We can outline what experts would look at to estimate its value, and why the number could range from millions to tens of millions of euros.

Why is the value hard to pin down

Stalin’s wine collection is unusual because It contains tens of thousands of bottles (reported around 40,000).

Many bottles are over 70–120 years old. Some are French grand cru vintages that normally sell for thousands per bottle even without historical provenance.

The collection has political and historical significance, which can dramatically raise prices. But: Many bottles may no longer be drinkable.

Storage conditions over decades are unknown.

Thomas Jefferson wine bottles (disputed provenance) sold for $156,000 each. Winston Churchill’s personal wines have sold for €10,000–€60,000 per bottle.

Tsar Nicholas II cellar bottles have fetched €5,000–€20,000 each. Stalin’s hoard is far larger and includes rare vintages from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

If even 5% of the bottles are high‑value French vintages worth €5,000–€20,000 each, the total skyrockets.

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