Among nearly 20,000 bottles are rare wines and spirits linked to Napoleon Bonaparte, Russian emperors Alexander III and Nicholas II, as well as Joseph Stalin, News.Az reports, citing News Georgia.
The Georgian National Wine Agency has launched a large-scale study of the historic enoteca. Experts are expected to catalogue and identify each bottle, determine its origin, age and potential collector value. The rarest items may later be offered for sale at international auctions.
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Officials say the collection is already being described as one of the most valuable wine archives in the post-Soviet space.
Even without the high-profile names attached to some bottles, the cellar contains 19th-century Georgian and European wines, vintage cognacs, champagne associated with the Bagration-Mukhrani princely family, and other rarities. Some bottles are believed to be more than 200 years old.
The enoteca is located on the grounds of the former “Wine Factory No. 1” in Tbilisi’s Vere district. The complex was built in the 1890s with funding from entrepreneur and philanthropist David Sarajishvili, the founder of a major Georgian brandy enterprise, and was considered one of the most advanced wineries of its time.
At its peak, the collection reportedly included around 120,000 bottles. Wars, revolution and the Soviet period led to the loss of much of the archive, though roughly a third of it has survived.
Today, the site has been converted into a public space with bars and restaurants, while the historic bottles remain stored in an underground cellar at a constant temperature of around 18°C, covered in decades of dust.
The collection is also tied to a popular local legend claiming that some of Napoleon’s cognacs were brought to Tbilisi after the 1812 war, allegedly seized during the French retreat from Moscow. There is no documentary evidence to support the story, but it has long contributed to the cellar’s near-mythical reputation.
Interest in the project has already extended beyond Georgia, with representatives of major auction houses, international collectors, and Pierre Lurton, president of the French wine estate Château d’Yquem, attending a presentation of the collection.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze described the archive as “an instrument of cultural diplomacy”, saying it could help draw global attention to Georgia as the cradle of winemaking.
