This just in. For those of you who missed out on your chance to buy wine from the Titanic, here’s another fascinating way to spend big bucks in pursuit of what might be truly extraordinary wine.
Apparently a boatload of wine that came from the private state collections of both Tsar Nicholas II and Joseph Stalin is on the auction block at Christies. Stored in deep granite caves at what some call the most perfect cellaring conditions in the world, these are mostly fortified and sweet dessert wines, including one with the name Honey of Altae Pastures, which sounds fantastic. Who wouldn’t drink a wine with that name?

Apparently many of the wines are blends created especially for the Tsar by his winemaker Prince Lev Sergeevich Golitzin, whose talent for blending wines was supposedly “legendary.”

Half have been sold already, but the other half is up for the taking, should you need some more stocking stuffers.

Here’s the full story.