Georgia uncorks the value of Stalin's 40,000-bottle wine collection

Georgia has unsealed a historic wine vault containing roughly 40,000 rare French and Georgian bottles once owned by Josef Stalin and the Russian Tsars. The government plans to auction off the historic collection to fund a new wine education school and place the country firmly on the map for global collectors.

Pilar Olivares and Aline Massuca / Reuters

29 May 2026 at 10:19:48

Bottles in a wine cellar housing a collection of rarities from the 19th and 20th centuries, once owned by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, in Tbilisi, Georgia May 28, 2026.

Irakli Gedenidze / Reuters

TBILISI — Tangled cobwebs dangle from the ceiling in the dim light, and a pleasant, musky sweetness pervades the air in this repository of a precious wine collection once owned by Georgia's most infamous son, Joseph Stalin.

The Georgian government, which owns the roughly 40,000 French and Georgian rarities, unsealed the wine vault this week for the first time in the capital of Tbilisi. Officials plan to auction off the collection—some of which dates back to 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 "put Georgia on the collectors' map."

The South Caucasus country markets itself as the birthplace of wine, backed by archaeological evidence demonstrating a continuous winemaking tradition that stretches back 8,000 years.

Stalin’s Imperial Trove

Stalin, who was born in Georgia and led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953, was an enthusiastic wine drinker and collector.

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 1917 Russian Revolution, and Stalin became its guardian, slowly adding his favorite Georgian varieties over the decades.

An "Indiana Jones" Discovery

Peering through the dust-covered bottles at the amber liquid inside, Victor Chen, a collector who traveled to Tbilisi from Dallas, Texas, was thrilled by what he saw.

"I feel like you're Indiana Jones opening up a cave: it could be nothing, it could be something," Chen said, referring to the fictional, swashbuckling archaeologist from the famous film franchise. "There are not many historical moments left at this point. And this could be one of them."

-Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; editing by Barbara Lewis/Reuters