Prince Lev Golitsyn amassed a huge collection of the finest and most rare wines in Europe, with substantial cellars (literally tens of thousands of bottles each) in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris, London, Berlin and of course the Crimea. He was considered by many at the time to be the largest and most comprehensive collection of wine in the world. In fact, he hosted his own Gala dinner to close the 1900 Paris exposition for each winemaker who had competed. At each guest's seat had been placed a bottle of the finest and most rare wine from that guest's country and region. A Prussian was among the guests, and for him was the following note "Since they do not produce wine in your country, kindly permit me to offer you one of the three bottles which had been given to Bismark on the day of the signing of the Treaty of Frankfurt" (This was confirmed by this Prussian to General Alexander Spiridovitch, Chief of Personal Security to Emperor Nicholas II).
Another story about Lev from Spiridovitch "One day, [Golitsyn] received the visit of a Grand Duke at Novi Svyet, who was a great connaisseur of wines, accompanied by several of his friends. The Prince asked each of the visitors to request which wines they desired to taste, as well as the exact vintage. They all tried to play a joke on the Prince by asking for the rarest wines they could think of, but they were completely astonished when each visitor received exactly the wine he had requested."
To his credit, he was one of the first truly "Professional Winemakers" in Europe, who devoted himself to studying every detail of the vineyards and production, and was a pioneer in innovating new and improved techniques to make wine. In fact, at the Exposition Internationale of 1900 in Paris held a "Grand Prix de Champagne". All the sparkling wines were entered and judged blind by a panel of experts. A Gala dinner was held that evening, in honor of the Comte Chandon (yes, THAT one). After glowing tributes and toasts to the Count, the guest of honor rose with a glass of "champagne" in his hand, and at one point in his speech, he said that "this wine of such a high quality could only be made in France". Suddenly, a giant bear of a man with a beard and a huge shock of wild hair stood up and said: "I am very grateful to you, Count, for praising my wine, but it was made by me on my estate Novi Svyet, in Russia, not in France" said Prince Golitsyn.
