A Russian vodka billionaire who bought Scotland’s most expensive sporting estate is selling it for £67million.
Tulchan Estate, completed in 1906, was sold to a company owned by Yuri Schefler in 2017 for an asking price of £25million.
It was previously owned by the Litchfield family for 23 years.
The estate’s famous fishing guests 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.
High-end estate agents Savills are handling the sale of the estate, which comprises more than 21,000 acres by Advie, near Cromdale, in the Scottish Highlands.
Vodka king Mr Shefler, 58 – whose best known brand is Stolichnaya – has been at the centre of a wine war between Brad Pitt and ex-wife Angelina Jolie.
He had fought with Pitt over control of Château Miraval, a Provence vineyard Pitt had purchased with Jolie in 2008.
The billionaire, who made his fortune from his alcohol empire, provoked Pitt’s anger after buying Jolie’s stake for $64million (£47.5million) in 2021 and himself drawn into the pair’s acrimonious divorce.
Yuri Schefler bought the Tulchan Estate (pictured) for £25million in 2017. Nine years later, he is selling it for £67million
Mr Shefler has, according to his Stoli Group, endured raids, smear campaigns designed to damage his reputation and attempted poisonings and kidnappings at the hands of Russian authorities over a long-running vodka trademark dispute.
Stoli Group, whose other brands include Kentucky Owl bourbon and Bayou rum, previously announced a rebrand of its flagship vodka, changing the name from Stolichnaya to Stoli vodka in an attempt to distance itself from Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Shefler bought the Tulchan Estate through one of his companies.
The vodka magnate, who according to Forbes is worth $1.1billion (£816.5million) – half of previous estimates – has carried out major investment into the Strathspey estate, including refurbishing its main B-listed Edwardian lodge.
Mr Shefler – who is said to spend his time between the UK and Switzerland – left the Russian army in September 1987 and started a business career which included running one of Moscow’s leading shopping malls and heading Vnukovo Airlines.
Previously the tycoon made headlines when a Saudi prince kicked the oligarch off his £300million yacht after buying it from him on the spot.
Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the deputy crown prince, was said to be on holiday in the south of France when the 134-metre luxury boat – Serene – took his fancy.
He is understood to have bought it there and then and made the Russian billionaire move out the same day.
Vodka king Yuri Shefler (pictured left) in 2015 – two years before he bought the Tulchan Estate
Mr Shefler was born to a Russian Jewish family in Oryol. He has citizenship in the United Kingdom and Israel.
He was formerly married to Tatiana Kovylina, a Russian model who once worked for Victoria’s Secret, until their split in 2021.
They have four children together, and lived together in Geneva, Switzerland.
He has since been linked to Ksenia Sukhinova, who was Miss Russia 2007, and Miss World 2008.
The entire 21,768 acres of Speyside hill and glen is on the market at a guide price of £67million – a potential record for a Scottish sporting estate.
Savills raved about the rare offering as ‘steeped in royal heritage and set amongst the dramatic landscape of the River Spey’.
The estate agents suggested the next owner might be able to meet the great challenge of early 20th-century sportsmen.
‘The combination of river, moor and hill offers the rare opportunity to attempt a ‘Macnab’: catching a salmon, shooting a stag and securing a brace of grouse in a single day,’ Savills said.
Tulchan Lodge has five principal reception rooms and 14 en-suite bedrooms
Savills stressed the sheer scale of the various accommodations available on Shefler’s estate.
Tulchan Lodge has five principal reception rooms and 14 en-suite bedrooms. A second building, Knocktulchan Lodge, has six en-suite bedrooms.
The estate comes with a cinema, wine-tasting room and a recently added spa complex featuring a sauna, steam room, treatment suite and outdoor Japanese hot tub.
It also has four holiday cottages, which Savills said contribute to annual income.
There are five tenanted farms on the property, which is owned through a company called Tulchan Sporting Estates Limited, in addition to an ‘in-hand farm, forestry, fishing lets, a seasonal restaurant (Feast) and a small meat box business (Take Tulchan Home)’/
The estate also includes an eight-mile stretch of the ‘world-famous River Spey (Tulchan Water)’.
Savills added: ‘Tulchan Estate is globally recognised as a Highland destination of international standing.
‘Once a favoured escape of Edward VII, George V and George VI and now operating at scale across farming, hospitality, natural capital and property management, Tulchan is a highly diversified rural enterprise with multiple revenue streams.’
Luke French, head of rural agency at Savills Scotland, said: ‘Tulchan is an estate like no other. Multi-faceted rural enterprises of this calibre and scale are rare.
‘A world-class hospitality offering runs in parallel with environmental stewardship of this glorious landscape.
‘The vision to create something truly special is inspiring. The opportunity it offers is unmatched in Scotland today.’
