Prince Lev Sergeyevich Golitsyn (; 24 August 1845 – 26 December 1915) was a Russian winemaker of the 1890s. He established the production of

sparkling wine Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While it is common to refer to this as champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that word for products exclusively produced in the Champagne ( ...

s in Russia.

Biography

Lev Sergeyevich was born into the aristocratic

House of Golitsyn The House of Golitsyn (, ) is the second largest and noblest Princely house in Russia.Jean-Marie Thiébaud , A great princely family of Russia, the Galitzines. Genealogy and historical notes , Paris, 1997. Among its members were warlords, lan ...

. After graduating from the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

in 1862, between 1864 and 1867 he served as a clerical officer at the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

. In 1872 he received a second degree, in law, from the

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

, and from 1872 to 1874 studied in Germany. Later in the 1870s he participated in an archaeological expedition in Vladimir Directorate that discovered several

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

sites. In recognition for this work, in 1877 Golitsyn was elected as a

corresponding member The corresponding member is one of the possible membership types in some organizations, especially in the learned societies and scientific academies. This title existed or exist in the Soviet Union, GDR, Polish People's Republic, Czechoslovak S ...

of the . In 1878 Golitsyn bought a

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

near Sudak in

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

. There he started cultivating grapes, eventually growing up to 600 varieties. His vineyards gradually spread across Crimea into the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

. In the 1880s he established the production of sparkling wines using the classical French technology of direct fermentation in bottles. He also set up the mass production of table, liqueur, and dessert wines, such as white and pink

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed, or the ground spice derived from the seed, of several tree species of the genus '' Myristica''; fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg ('' M. fragrans'') is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fru ...

and

port wine Port wine (, ; ), or simply port, is a Portuguese wine, Portuguese fortified wine produced in the Douro, Douro Valley of Norte, Portugal, northern Portugal. It is typically a sweetness of wine, sweet red wine, often served with dessert wine, ...

s. In Crimea, Golitsyn became an avid collector of 17th–20th century wines, eventually accumulating around 50,000 bottles. Golitsyn's winemaking career peaked in the 1890s, when he was a leading Russian winemaker. By 1912 his fortune declined, and he donated a large part of his lands and vineyards to

Nicholas II of Russia Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until Abdication of Nicholas II, hi ...

aiming to preserve them as part of the Imperial estates.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golitsyn, Lev 1845 births 1915 deaths Russian winemakers 19th-century businesspeople from the Russian Empire Archaeologists from the Russian Empire

Lev Lev or LEV may refer to: People and fictional characters *Lev (given name) *Lev (surname) Places *Lev, Azerbaijan, a village *Lev (crater), a tiny lunar crater Religion *an abbreviation for Leviticus, the third book of the Hebrew Bible and the ...

Nobility from the Russian Empire