Wine Fit For A Tsar - Brief Article

Singapore wine lovers have been given an opportunity to buy some of the rarest wines in the world. Through contacts with strong Russian links, Christophe Sadones, food and beverage manager of the city's Grand Hyatt Hotel, has obtained stocks of vintages made for the rulers of the Kremlin.

The grapes were planted originally to produce-prime wines for the tsars. After the 1917 revolution, the new rulers reserved these vintages for themselves. Now anybody with lots of money can sip what was once the top tipple of tsar and commissar.

A 1940 Muscat from the Massandra winery in southern Russia has been rated 100 by Robert Parker. There are 57 bottles left in the world. It sells in the award-winning Mezza Nine restaurant for US$750.

"It's history in a bottle," says Sadones, He advises that it be drunk with foie gras or dessert.

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