2024-04-16 11:53:01
According to the investigation of the portal “The Insider”, this business is managed by Alexey Repik, a friend of Ekaterina Tikhonova, the daughter of the master of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin.
It is emphasized that the wine of the rarest names, which has not been sold in Russia since the beginning of the war, can currently be found in elite restaurants owned by A. Repik and his partner Ivan Sibirev, the highest-ranking manager of Russian oligarch Gennady Timchenko’s companies.
G. Timchenko himself is a close friend of V. Putin.
Wine is imported under the guise of “certification samples”, thereby drastically reducing customs duties.
A new company has emerged
Unlike the full embargo on Australian and United States wine imports, the EU sanction appeared to be a symbolic restriction, as the share of such luxury wine was less than 1%. of the total supply to Russia.
It’s just that the Europeans tried to leave the Russian rich without Grand Cru de Bourgogne and Bordeaux, without sticking sticks in the circles of ordinary wine producers.
However, this measure has actually led to the emergence of shadow imports and new types of importers.
in 2022 at the end of 2011, the little-known company “Ryatiko”, owned by the owner of the pharmaceutical giant “R-Pharm” A.Repik, brought one of the most expensive wines in the world to Russia.
Almost 200 of the rarest appellations of wine (a total of 800 bottles) arrived bypassing EU sanctions.
The purchase price of dozens of bottles alone exceeded one million rubles (13 thousand euros) per unit. And the point is not only the cosmic price, but also the fact that these types of wine are not so easy to get.
The premium wine market differs from the traditional segment not only in terms of price, but also in terms of supply: the demand for wine from the best wineries is many times higher than the supply.
For example, in 2007, the cult Burgundy Domaine Leroy from the Musigny vineyard produced just 608 bottles.
The most famous distributors around the world are competing for the right to receive this wine: from Great Britain and the United States to Japan and Hong Kong.
Therefore, such winemakers sell their products according to advance quotas – an outside buyer who wants to buy a special type of drink directly from the producer will simply be answered by being directed to a distributor.
Knowing this situation, the 200-name wine presented by the new Russian wine importer looks absolutely fantastic.
One Telegram channel, which writes about the alcohol market, was the first to draw attention to the appearance of the world’s most expensive wine in Russia: it was surprised by the contrast between the old and new Ryatiko imports.
A company that used to ship a variety of products from Japan, from pickled ginger to muscle stimulants, suddenly declared extremely expensive imports from Burgundy.
According to the Federal Alcohol Production Register, the former soy sauce supplier imported almost 200 of the best wines from Burgundy, Bordeaux (France) and Piedmont (Italy) to Russia in half a year.
Prices skyrocketed
In three days, Ryatiko imported elite drinks from all five Bordeaux wineries, which received the highest status in the classification of this type of wine in 1855. at the Paris International Exhibition: Chateau Haut-Brion, Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Chateau Latour, Chateau Margaux and Chateau Mouton Rothschild.
Domaine de la Romanee-Conti wine, which was adored by Louis XV’s lover, Madame Pompadur, came back to Russia.
If we estimate Ryatiko imports according to the average prices reported by WineSearcher in the world, in 2022 alone in November and December, the company imported 3.902 million EUR worth of wine.
If the bottles were purchased in good condition, and the seller had a guarantee of their origin, this price could have been much higher.
This is the purchase price only, excluding shipping and taxes and duties.
The Insider points out that this money could equip 300 Russian schools with heated toilets, and given that it’s only a two-month import, the annual amount would be enough for all 2,000 Russian schools that still don’t have heated toilets.
The collection brought to Russia by Ryatiko included a unique 20th century. wine.
For example, the legendary winemaker Henry Jayer produced just over 1,000 bottles of Richebourg each year from the vineyard of the same name.
1987 was the last year of his performance, and in 2006 H.Jayer himself died.
These two events literally sent the price of the drink into the stratosphere.
in 1984 a vintage bottle of Henry Jayer Richebourg was auctioned at Christie’s in 2020. for 207 thousand euros.
And in 2022, Ryatiko brought ten bottles of Henry Jayer to Russia, including Richebourg from the same 1984.
Ryatiko’s list of supplied products dates back to 1929. Chateau Haut-Brion, 1947 Chateau Cheval Blanc, 1961 Chateau la Mission Haut Brion – These names and years of production stir the imagination.
Warehouses in the Baltic States
Such a wine would not have been possible to buy without the help of European companies that helped to circumvent the sanctions.
According to The Insider, the majority of alcohol imports to Russia go through the Baltic countries.
Russian customs regulations require that alcohol labels be affixed before entering the product into Russian territory.
For that purpose, most Russian importers rent warehouses in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, where they stick labels and Russian labels on the imported bottles.
At the outbreak of the war the Russian government began this gluing experiment in Russia, but most of the alcohol is still imported under the old scheme.
The second option is to use European intermediary companies that can get wine from European producers at market prices, and then “adjust” them for the Russian buyer.
And the third option is fictitious transportation through the territory of Russia to other countries of the Customs Union (part of the former Soviet republics belong to it).
For example, in the documents, the buyer of the cargo can be a Kazakh company, to which the goods will be delivered via Russia. During the transit through the territory of Russia, the recipient from Kazakhstan rejects the cargo and new documents are issued to the buyer in Russia.
According to The Insider, the inconvenient rules of customs formalities have proved useful for circumventing sanctions: reputable European manufacturers send their products to Europe, and all the risks of circumventing sanctions are borne by corporate intermediaries.
He drank, but did not pay
A person who is superficially familiar with Russian reality may be surprised: who would waste millions of rubles on a bottle of wine that they will drink in a couple of hours? But the Moscow sommelier’s answer to this question is well known.
in 2017 “Sobesednik” published the supply contract that the Kremlin company “Maisto kombinatas No. 4” concluded with oligarch Telman Ismailov’s company AST.
Romanee-Conti wine of 2001, 2002 and 2005, costing respectively 16 thousand EUR, 17.5 thousand euros and 20 thousand euros for one bottle. At that time, the staff of the restaurant “Sixty”, which was the highest in Europe, told about 2014. Banquet hosted by Dmitry Medvedev.
The restaurant on the 62nd floor of the skyscraper was completely closed to outsiders in Moscow on the occasion of the prime minister’s holiday at that time.
D. Medvedev chose the most expensive bottle of wine on the list (it turned out to be Romanee-Conti) with an ironic comment: “Bank VTB will pay.”
Turkish pagan „The Insider“ inf.
2024-04-16 11:53:01