Ukraine fury as Putin and Berlusconi sample 241 year old wine worth £60,000

Wine case: Putin and Berlusconi on an outing together in the Crimea
EPA
Will Stewart18 September 2015

Ukraine has opened a criminal case after Vladimir Putin and disgraced Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi uncorked a 241 year old bottle of wine, the oldest in annexed Crimea.

The pair tasted the 1775 Jeres de la Frontera but now face accusations of plundering a treasure in the ‘occupied’ peninsula.

It was during a controversial visit to Crimea last week that scandal-prone Berlusconi asked to taste the Spanish wine which is valued at around £60,000 a bottle.

The wine was produced during the 18th-century reign of Catherine the Great and brought to Crimea by Count Mikhail Vorontsov, who served as governor-general of the Black Sea outpost.

He established the Massandra winery that was grabbed by Russia when it annexed Crimea from Ukraine last year.

Prosecutors in Kiev say the incident involving Putin and Berlusconi amounts to “large-scale misuse of property.”

Putin and Berlusconi are longstanding friends who have been on holiday together.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in