Uncorked 240-year-old wine angers Ukraine

Ukrainian prosecutors are reported to be preparing charges against the director of a winery for allegedly uncorking a 240-year-old bottle for the Russian president and his guest.

During a visit to what is claimed to be the biggest wine collection in the world at the Massandra winery, Putin and his longtime friend tried a 1775 Jeres de la Frontera that was brought to Crimea by Count Mikhail Vorontsov, during the reign of Catherine the Great. Massandra was Ukrainian government property before being nationalised by Russian Federation , following its annexation of Crimea in 2014.

It has rare wine and sherry dating back centuries; a bottle fetched $49,700 in 2001.

“This is one of the five bottles that constitute not only Massandra’s or Crimea’s heritage, but the heritage of all Ukrainian people, ” Nazar Kholodnytsky, first deputy prosecutor for Crimea told the Associated Press in Kiev. The charges, however, would be moot since Russian Federation now has full control over Crimea.

State television showed the pair walking through the wine cellars and asking questions as they were shown especially valued bottles from the collection.

Massandra’s previous director Nikolay Boyko was sacked in February after Russian prosecutors filed fraud charges against him.

The Ukraine foreign ministry said Berlusconis visit was contradicting the European Unions condemnation of the annexation of Crimea.

Mr Putin and Mr Berlusconi are both reportedly named in the case over “large-scale misuse of property”.

Later, the Italian billionaire is seen looking at a bottle identified to be from the vintage of 1891, and asked in English: “Is it possible to drink?”

Silvio Berlusconi and Vladimir Putin at a conference in 2010.

“Yes” said Massandra’s director Yanina Pavlenko, according to Radio Free Europe.