Russian vodka billionaire buys £25m Scottish estate

The owner of S.P.I Group, which counts Stolichnaya Vodka among its brands, has bought what is believed to be the most expensive estate ever sold in Scotland.

The Tulchan Estate, including Tulchan Sporting Estates Limited (TSEL) which runs the property, had been owned by the Litchfield family and was put on the market last year at an asking price of £25 million.

Last week TSEL confirmed that 100% of its share had been sold to SPI Group for the “principal benefit of Mr Yuri Schefler of Russia, who is well known to the estate having been a regular visitor in the past”, it said.

According to TSEL, the S.P.I Group will continue to operate the estate as a business along similar lines as the Litchfield family and plan to make additional investment and innovation in the business, while keeping on staff currently living on the estate in tenanted properties.

Located in Strathspey, Speyside, the 21,000 acre estate boasts eight miles of double bank fishing on the river, known as one of the greatest of all salmon runs, an “exceptional” pheasant shoot, two driven grouse moors and an Edwardian shooting lodge that sleeps 26.

Previous guests to the lodge have included King Edward VII, King George V, King George VI, former US president Theodore Roosevelt, the railway financier William Vanderbilt and King Leopold of Belgium.

The S.P.I. Group, which Schefler bought from state-owned VVO Soyuzplodoimport for US$285,000 in 1997, is best known for its Stolichnaya vodka brand and sells alcohol under 380 brands in 160 countries.

According to Forbes, Schefler is worth a reported $1.68 billion, and splits his time between the UK, Switzerland and wherever his yacht Serene, one of the largest in the world, takes him.

The sale was handled by Savills, which have not confirmed the eventual sale price, but have confirmed it represented “one of the most expensive properties ever to be sold on the open market in Scotland”.