Ancient wines, dating back thousands of years, reach us either in the form of a dry residue or in the form of vinegar. That is, it is not possible to taste such wine.
Experts say that wines made no earlier than 1700 can be considered usable. And then on condition that the alcohol was stored in ideal conditions. It is these drinks that have entered our today's Top 5 oldest wines in the world.
5. "Muscat pink Magarach", 1836
This wine is listed in the Guinness Book as the oldest wine produced in Russia. In total, 3 bottles of this wine have been preserved, which are kept in the VNII "Magarach" wine cell near Yalta.
For the production of wine "Magarach" and 200 years ago, and today they use only grapes growing near the village of Otradnoye, Yalta region.
4. Chateau Lafite Rothschild, 1787
This bottle of wine was obtained by employees of the British company The Antique Wine Company, which sell the best wines in the world.
The bottle once belonged to the first President of the United States, the Thomas Jeffersons, and then became the property of the Rothschild family. The price of the bottle, according to experts, is about $ 156,000. However, it is not easy to buy a historic bottle - it was included in a whole collection of 48 vintage wines. Naturally, a considerable amount will be requested for such a set.
3. Ch? Teau d'Yquem, 1787
A bottle of this Ch? Teau d'Yquem was sold in 2006 for $ 90,000. It is thus the world's most expensive sweet white wine. The bottle was bought by an anonymous collector from America, who said that he was not going to drink the drink, which means that the wine could still find a new owner.
Before the auction, the bottle adorned the collection of rare alcoholic beverages of the Antique company for many years.
2. "Jerez de la Fronteira", 1775
Spanish wine is kept in the Crimean Museum "Massandra". Five bottles of sherry make up the crown jewel of the museum's collection of wines, with just under a million bottles. One of the bottles was sold to an anonymous source at Sotheby's in 1990 for $ 50,000.
After that, the wine was exhibited at auctions twice more and was sold at a comparable price, permission to export wine outside Ukraine was given on behalf of the President of the country.
Chronicles testify that in 1964 one of the collection bottles was opened for tasting by order of N. Khrushchev. Everyone who tasted the sherry said that the wine was in excellent condition.
1.R? Desheimer Apostelwein, 1727
In the basement of one of the Bremen restaurants there are 12 wine barrels, each of which bears the name of a biblical apostle. The oldest usable wine in the world is kept in the "Jude Barrel", which has a volume of nearly 3,000 liters.
From time to time, several bottles are decanted from the barrel, which are not sold, but presented as a gift to monarchs and politicians. The last time it was taken into bottles was in 1950.
Several times young wine from the wine-growing city of Rüdesheim was added to the barrel of the best harvests - the addition of sugar to the young wine allows the old one to retain its freshness.