Patriarch Kirill, who owns the Mezyb winery, located on state land in the village of Divnomorskoye near Gelendzhik, next door to President Vladimir Putin's winery, has produced his own wine. The notice of the beginning of the turnover appeared in the Federal Register of Alcoholic Products, The Insider noticed.
The registration date is October 31st. This wine was a blend of white grape varieties Chardonnay and Viognier with a protected geographical indication “Kuban. Gelendzhik", harvest year – 2019.
Journalist and wine market expert Sergei Panov, in a conversation with The Insider, notes that the news about the release of the first Mezybi own wine means that the patriarchate has completed the construction of the winery, brought in all the necessary equipment and launched its production.
The fact that the structures of the Russian Orthodox Church are going to produce wine became known in 2019. Open Media wrote that Mezyb LLC, founded in 2015, will produce dry white wine of the highest category. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, 66.67% of Mezyb LLC belongs to the financial and economic department of the Moscow Patriarchate, another 33.33% belongs to the Sofrino art and production enterprise, which produces church utensils.
The area of the vineyards of the Russian Orthodox Church near Gelendzhik is more than 70 hectares, and they are located near the "dacha of the patriarch" in Gelendzhik, which is called the "Patriarchal and Synodal Spiritual, Administrative and Cultural Center of the Russian Orthodox Church." In order to build the luxurious residence of Patriarch Kirill, and subsequently a winery, 16 hectares of Red Book Pitsunda pine, relic trees that grow only in this area, were cut down . Representatives of the Ecowatch for the North Caucasus claimed that the patriarch's dacha was built with gross violations – on the lands of the Forest Fund and the coastal strip, which is prohibited by law.
Wine from the Mezybi vineyards began to be made in 2019, but it was produced by the Divnomorskoye Estate winery, owned by Putin’s friends, billionaires Gennady Timchenko and Vladimir Kolbin, and which was created personally for Putin. This can be found in the Federal Register of Alcoholic Products: for the past three years, Divnomorye JSC has received notification of the release of alcoholic products – these are the wines "Usadba Mezyb" and "Old Road to Dzhanhot".
The winemaking business of the patriarch is not transparent, Sergei Panov notes. Mezybi's financial statements show that the winery only brings losses, although its scale is "serious". At the same time, the losses of the patriarchy, apparently, are not embarrassed. According to the expert, the harvest allows to produce about 340,000 bottles of wine. Previously, they were not sold and, most likely, they were given as gifts. The company's revenue (in 2021 it is 769 thousand rubles) was less than the cost of sales (849 thousand rubles). The company spends the most money on some “management expenses” — in 2021 they amounted to 39 million rubles. And in 2020, the ROC winery received a large loan: borrowed funds increased from 98 to 244 million rubles.
“The registered wine has already passed the peak of its form. Viognier is an aromatic variety that is not intended for aging, since the components that form its aromatics quickly decompose, the aging potential of such a wine is 1–2 years. That is, the release of such a 2019 vintage wine for sale is a sign that this is not commerce, but a “toy” of the patriarch,” Panov notes.