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FIRST CHANCE TO BUY BRANDY THAT STALIN SERVED CHURCHILL
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/uk/first-chance-to-buy-brandy-that-stalin-served-churchill-7582925.html
23 March 2012
Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill at Yalta, where the prime minister
first tasted Stalin later sent him 400 bottles a year
Jonathan Prynn, Consumer Business Editor
Sir Winston Churchill's favourite Armenian brandy - said to have
played a key role in the shaping of postwar Europe - has gone on sale
in Britain for the first time.
The prime minister developed a taste for the ArArAt brandy when it
was served by Stalin at the Yalta conference in February 1945. After
the Second World War, the Soviet leader arranged for Churchill to be
sent 400 bottles every year.
However, it was not available to the British public because the
Soviet government only allowed a small number of spirit brands, such
as Stolichnaya, to be exported. Most supplies of ArArAt were reserved
for the Communist Party elite.
Now, more than 20 years after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, East
European drinks distributor Vinorium has brought 10,000 bottles to
London, to be sold from Monday in the city's specialist wine merchants,
such as
Gerry's of Soho, priced at about £29. Vinorium's Laszlow Puskas hopes
eventually to sell ArArAt throughout Britain and Ireland if it proves
a success. He said: "Everyone seems very surprised that it is finally
coming to the British market. Liquor shops told us they were getting
regular requests for it, but nobody knew where to get it."
The company is also bringing other "lost" Eastern European spirit
brands to Britain, including Ruskova vodka.
The brandy, which was also a favourite of Agatha Christie and Frank
Sinatra, has been made in the Ararat Valley since 1887. The brand is
now owned by French drinks giant Pernot Ricard.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/uk/first-chance-to-buy-brandy-that-stalin-served-churchill-7582925.html
23 March 2012
Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill at Yalta, where the prime minister
first tasted Stalin later sent him 400 bottles a year
Jonathan Prynn, Consumer Business Editor
Sir Winston Churchill's favourite Armenian brandy - said to have
played a key role in the shaping of postwar Europe - has gone on sale
in Britain for the first time.
The prime minister developed a taste for the ArArAt brandy when it
was served by Stalin at the Yalta conference in February 1945. After
the Second World War, the Soviet leader arranged for Churchill to be
sent 400 bottles every year.
However, it was not available to the British public because the
Soviet government only allowed a small number of spirit brands, such
as Stolichnaya, to be exported. Most supplies of ArArAt were reserved
for the Communist Party elite.
Now, more than 20 years after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, East
European drinks distributor Vinorium has brought 10,000 bottles to
London, to be sold from Monday in the city's specialist wine merchants,
such as
Gerry's of Soho, priced at about £29. Vinorium's Laszlow Puskas hopes
eventually to sell ArArAt throughout Britain and Ireland if it proves
a success. He said: "Everyone seems very surprised that it is finally
coming to the British market. Liquor shops told us they were getting
regular requests for it, but nobody knew where to get it."
The company is also bringing other "lost" Eastern European spirit
brands to Britain, including Ruskova vodka.
The brandy, which was also a favourite of Agatha Christie and Frank
Sinatra, has been made in the Ararat Valley since 1887. The brand is
now owned by French drinks giant Pernot Ricard.