Ceausescu's Wine Turns Sour, Goes Down the Drain

Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo! | Wed Sep 24

[ctlpdad]

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Thousands of bottles of fine wine and spirits collected by Romania's loathed communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in his huge palace have been poured away because they went off, officials said on Wednesday.

Romania's lower parliament chamber, which took over part of the world's second-largest building after Ceausescu was ousted in 1989, inherited the stash but found it had perished.

"The bottles were kept in a vertical position for years, the cork got dry and air got in," the parliament said in a note. "As a consequence, the mentioned goods were destroyed by breaking the bottles and pouring the contents down the drain."

The list of drinks thrown away includes 621 bottles of red and white wine as well as 411 bottles of traditional Romanian brandy and more than 1,000 bottles of other spirits. Their value was not known.

The Ceausescus lived in luxury while most Romanians lacked basic goods. They were executed after a bloody revolt before they could complete their palace, which one guide book describes as "the world's biggest eyesore."

[TexasNative2000]

The idiot Commie couldn't even store wine correctly.

[sirshackleton]

"The bottles were kept in a vertical position for years, the cork got dry and air got in,"

Stupid commie.

[grobdriver]

"The bottles were kept in a vertical position for years,

What a crime!
What kind of animal would do this?

Wine is life - everything else is just details.

[SF Republican]

Hopefully it was french wine

[TexasNative2000]

Touche'

[CherylBower]

Sounds like sour grapes to me.

[Calvin Locke]

...world's second-largest building...

No offense to Romanians, but WTF?

What portion of the population could be housed in said structure?

[latrans]

Pearls before swine.

[Cicero]

Was it Ceausescu or the parliamentarians who forgot to put the bottles on their sides? After all, the good dictator died quite a few years ago. Did the new caretakers of his palace only just notice that the corks were drying?

I'm not a Ceausescu fan, but I suspect that this was a bureaucratic blunder, not dictatorial ignorance. Most dictators know how to live the good life. If Ceausescu's butler let this sort of thing happen when his master was alive, he'd have been strung up by his toes at the very least.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

The Palace of Parliament, together with the adjoining zones occupies an area of 508,000 square meters (143,31 acres). In the Guinness Book of World Records, under “Administrative Buildings”, it ranks second in the world after the Pentagon building which occupies an area of 604,000 square meters (149,24 acres).

Found this online.

[Tokhtamish]

I love Zhora Ceaucescu's last words to the firing squad...

"Remember I was a mother to you all."

They put more lead in her.

Thinking historically, how many rulers in history who failed did so because they were regarded by their people as henpecked by ambitious women ? Marc Antony, Louis XVI, Marcos, King Constantine of Greece (who had a reputation as a Momma's Boy), Clinton, Ceaucescu, Louis Napoleon, Mao... How often in history do we see the "bitch" factor ?

[ctlpdad]

for me, daily. :)

[Rebelbase]

"How often in history do we see the "bitch" factor ?"

Nice observation. How many PHD dissertations or Master's degree thiesis do you think we'll see on that topic coming from the University systems this year?

[Rebelbase]

Too bad they didn't let a group of Romanian orphans have at Zhora Ceaucescu before they shot her.

[aristeides]

When wine goes bad, you can still use it as wine vinegar. And you can still use it to cook with. Didn't they think of this? (They could have sold it as vinegar, I should think.)

[aristeides]

Even fortified wine doesn't go off. There are still bottles of 18th century madeira kicking around.