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1:11

If you want one more blessing

1:13

to count this weekend, meet Nathan

1:16

Schmitt's Camp of Climbers. Their

1:20

mothers are widows of the war

1:22

in Ukraine who gambled that a

1:24

week of challenge in the Alps

1:30

could mend their broken hearts.

1:32

You can't hear the sounds of war here. You

1:35

just close your eyes and you feel like you could fly.

1:42

Enter some countries, you arrive in style. Here

1:45

you arrive in what's basically a backyard

1:47

swing hoisted by a crank 60 feet

1:49

above the North Sea. And

1:52

if you're wondering about the safety regulations,

1:54

yeah us too. Then

1:56

again, when you are a sovereign nation, you by definition

1:59

are a sovereign nation. set your own

2:01

rules. That's a hell of a way to get into a

2:03

country. It's the only way to travel. Welcome

2:06

to Sealand, a monarchy that declared its

2:08

independence in 1967. Just

2:11

wait till you hear this story. I'm

2:16

Leslie Stahl. I'm Bill

2:18

Whittaker. I'm Sharon Alfonsi. I'm

2:21

John Wertheim. I'm Cecilia Vega. I'm Nora

2:23

O'Donnell. I'm Scott Pelly.

2:26

I'll read your stories and more

2:28

tonight on this special 90-minute edition

2:30

of 60 Minutes. Everybody

2:56

loves a donut. Hot

3:05

or a dozen from Duncan. Almost

3:08

a century ago, a murder-suicide rocked a quiet London

3:10

neighborhood. But there's a lot more to this story.

3:13

And I'm documenting my investigation in the new

3:16

podcast, Ghost Story. Ghosts aren't real. At least,

3:18

that's what I've always believed. Sure, odd things

3:20

happen in my childhood bedroom. But

3:23

ultimately, I shrugged it all off. That

3:25

is, until a couple of years ago,

3:27

when I discovered that every subsequent occupant

3:29

of that house is convinced they've experienced

3:32

something inexpectful too. Including the

3:34

most recent inhabitant who says she was visited

3:36

at night by the ghost of a faceless

3:38

woman. It just so happens

3:40

that the alleged ghost haunting my childhood

3:42

room might just be my wife's great-grandmother,

3:45

who was murdered in the house next door by

3:47

two gunshots to the face. Ghost

3:50

Story, a podcast about family secrets, overwhelming

3:52

coincidence, and the things that come back

3:55

to haunt us. Follow

3:57

Ghost Story on the Wandering app or wherever you

3:59

get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes

4:01

ad-free right now by joining Wandering Plus.

4:06

A bus filled with widows of

4:08

war and their children left

4:10

Ukraine recently bound for the

4:13

Austrian Alps. They'd been

4:15

invited to a charity summer camp

4:17

hosted by Nathan Schmidt, an American

4:19

Marine who knows all too well

4:22

the bereavement of war. The

4:26

Asian climbing was Schmidt's path to recovery from three combat

4:29

tours in Iraq. And so

4:31

when Vladimir Putin launched his attack on

4:33

an innocent people, Schmidt offered

4:35

Ukraine what seemed like an

4:38

impossible hope, that in

4:40

only six days in the Alps he

4:42

could teach grieving families to rise.

4:48

The journey to an Austrian hotel

4:50

ended at three in the morning

4:52

after 45 hours on the road.

4:55

So the trip already felt like

4:57

a mistake to widows who packed

5:00

enough skepticism to last the week.

5:03

Their husbands died defending Ukraine

5:06

among the estimated 70,000

5:08

Ukrainian soldiers killed. Time

5:11

stopped for Natalia Zaremba and

5:13

her two young boys. She

5:16

told us, I think they

5:18

still don't believe what happened, just like me. They're

5:25

still waiting for Daddy to come home from

5:28

work. For

5:31

Daddy to fly home to

5:34

eight-year-old Ilya and five-year-old Andre

5:36

who imagined mastering the air

5:39

like their dad. Mikhailos

5:42

Zaremba was a Navy pilot

5:45

shot down May 2022 in the

5:47

unprovoked invasion of his home.

5:54

He loved Ukraine, so

5:58

he gave his life for Ukraine. What

6:03

is your hope for this trip?

6:11

I want to find strength

6:13

for myself to be

6:15

able to bring my children up, to

6:18

bring our children up. I

6:23

want to find the strength to

6:25

not let my husband down and

6:28

to give our children a good

6:30

future. Thirteen

6:33

widows and twenty children had come

6:35

to Austria from Mykolive, a city

6:38

bombed by the Russians for 260

6:40

days. The

6:43

bereaved families traveled 1,300 miles

6:46

on faith to meet

6:48

a stranger still struggling

6:50

to heal from his own

6:52

war. Go, Ukraine!

6:55

Go, Ukraine! Go,

6:57

Ukraine! Go,

7:00

Ukraine! Nathan

7:02

Schmidt, Naval Academy graduate,

7:05

Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps

7:07

Reserve, led shouts of glory

7:10

to Ukraine at

7:12

the third summer camp hosted

7:14

by his small charity, the

7:16

Mountain Seed Foundation. It

7:19

comes from the Bible. It was,

7:22

you know, with faith the size of a mustard seed, one can move mountains.

7:25

We're not religious organization,

7:28

but that faith

7:30

in something bigger, that faith in

7:32

self, and if

7:34

you can reinforce that faith, we

7:36

and you can move mountains. What

7:40

do you hope these families have when

7:43

they return to Ukraine? We

7:46

teach about the significance of the rope

7:48

in mountaineering. The rope

7:50

signifies community, signifies team.

7:53

You're never alone on the rope. It also

7:55

signifies courage. Because

7:57

when you're on the rope, that means you're climbing a mountain.

8:01

Encourage doesn't mean that you're

8:03

not afraid. It actually means that you are

8:05

afraid and you're going to overcome that fear.

8:09

There would be plenty of fear

8:11

to overcome because ultimately this was

8:13

his goal. To lead

8:15

children on the last leg of a

8:18

climb to the peak of Mount Kitchtine

8:20

Horn at more than 10,000 feet. The

8:24

first steps to the summit began with

8:27

training for the kids ages 5

8:29

to 17. For

8:33

their moms, there were daily group

8:35

therapy sessions and every

8:37

day of the camp would

8:39

raise the challenge for both. We're

8:42

going to trust ourselves.

8:44

The main thing, we're going to trust

8:46

our equipment and we're going to trust the

8:48

team that we're with. The

8:50

team of professional guides and

8:53

other volunteers included Dan Knassen.

8:56

Knassen was Schmidt's Naval Academy

8:58

classmate. As a Navy

9:01

SEAL in 2009, he

9:03

lost his legs in Afghanistan.

9:06

He's a three-time Paralympian, but

9:09

he'd never climbed since his injury. The

9:16

first days of training looked dangerous,

9:22

but there was always an expert on the

9:24

rope. One

9:29

professional guide for every

9:31

four children who eased

9:33

the tension slowly for

9:35

kids including 14-year-old Miroslav

9:37

Kupchenkoev. Now just lean

9:39

back, lean back,

9:41

totally trust. Miroslav,

9:51

his adult sister and

9:53

their mother Natalia, lost

9:55

Oleksandr Kupchenkoev, a 53-year-old

9:59

career soldier. Natalia told

10:01

us, he was the man I

10:03

wanted to spend my whole life with. He

10:10

was the best at everything. Wonderful

10:13

husband, wonderful dad. People

10:16

loved him. Kupchenkov

10:21

was hit by a Russian

10:23

missile March 2022 as

10:25

he was running ammunition to his

10:27

pen down soldiers. Miroslav

10:33

told us, every day he showed me

10:35

how to be a good person and

10:37

he was always brave. He

10:45

would never go back, only

10:47

forward. And

10:51

Miroslav discovered in repelling, going

10:53

back is going forward. And

10:56

terror was just one step before

10:58

triumph. As

11:05

the children learned the ropes, the

11:07

moms seemed to be near the end

11:10

of theirs. It

11:12

will be hard for you

11:14

to hear this. They were

11:16

led by clinical psychologist Amit

11:18

Oren with translation by Irena

11:20

Prijoczko, the charity's

11:22

Ukrainian co-founder. Amit

11:24

Oren is an assistant professor at the

11:27

Yale School of Medicine. The

11:30

way I approach this group of

11:32

people is not in looking

11:34

at their trauma, it's in

11:36

looking at their strengths. And

11:39

what strengths are you finding? Capacity

11:42

for love? Honesty?

11:47

These are the strengths that they're finding. All

11:50

I do is take a flashlight,

11:53

illuminate inside them and

11:56

let them see and remember who

11:58

they are. But

12:02

Svetlana Milenchuk on the left didn't

12:04

see the light. She

12:06

didn't believe in breakthroughs. She

12:09

brought her daughter, Miroslava, while her

12:11

adult daughter stayed home. Svetlana

12:15

lost her husband, Yuri, a

12:17

civilian building inspector who volunteered

12:20

the day after

12:22

Putin invaded. Svetlana

12:24

mixed homemade explosives for the troops

12:27

as her husband sent text messages

12:30

from the front. Svetlana

12:32

told us, pictures started coming in. Good

12:39

morning, darling, with a photo

12:41

of a flower taken right from the

12:43

trench. It was spring already,

12:46

right from the trench. The

12:48

photos thrilled her because Yuri

12:51

had always worked too much at

12:53

the expense of the family, she

12:55

thought. But after

12:57

the invasion, family was all he

12:59

cared about. His revelation

13:02

lifted their lives. Then

13:05

he was dead. And

13:07

her rage is almost

13:09

like blindness. I

13:14

became very distant and angry,

13:17

and I kept all the sorrow inside. I

13:20

didn't share it. Nathan

13:24

Schmidt was keeping his sorrow

13:26

inside when, in 2019, a friend

13:28

invited him on a climbing trip.

13:33

Schmidt wasn't a mountaineer, he's afraid

13:35

of heights. To him, the idea

13:38

sounded so difficult and frightening.

13:41

He might just have the force to

13:43

break his grief. Yeah.

13:49

You know, I spent the Naval

13:51

Academy preparing myself for war, and

13:55

nothing can prepare yourself for war. In

13:58

2004, Schmidt

14:00

was a 24-year-old first lieutenant

14:03

who dreamed of leading Marines.

14:06

He landed in Fallujah on

14:08

the eve of the bloodiest battle

14:10

of the entire Iraq war. Two

14:14

weeks after arriving at Camp

14:17

Fallujah, I lost my

14:19

teacher, who was a mentor

14:21

of mine at the Naval Academy. Killed.

14:24

Yeah, the rocket struck the office. I

14:26

was the second one in the room,

14:28

and it was the first

14:31

time I had ever seen anyone die

14:33

in such a way, and it

14:36

was my teacher. And that established

14:39

a crack in me that had

14:42

to be healed in another way that took years

14:44

and years to heal. The

14:46

problem was that that was the first of many

14:48

cracks. I

14:51

lost one of our Marines that was

14:53

in my unit a month later.

14:57

I then had my

14:59

friend lose his leg. I took

15:01

over his team. A

15:03

few days after that, I

15:07

lost my analyst in

15:10

the gun turret of our vehicle. By

15:13

the end of November, the unit that I was with, which

15:15

is a great unit, 3-1, was combat ineffective.

15:19

We had lost over 20 percent of

15:22

our unit either injured or killed.

15:24

And that was his first tour.

15:27

He fought in Iraq for three

15:30

years. Who were

15:32

you after that third

15:34

tour? I thought

15:36

in my mind that I was the strongest. But

15:39

in reality, I was

15:42

the weakest. I

15:44

was strong physically. I

15:47

could do as many pull-ups as you asked me to

15:49

do. I could run. I

15:53

was broken. And,

15:56

you know,

15:59

those cracks. actually take a lifetime to

16:02

heal. You

16:05

spend this week doing what you can to

16:08

heal these families. And

16:12

I wonder how much of

16:14

that is healing you. It's

16:29

huge. This program has

16:35

healed me in ways I can't

16:38

even describe. And I feel

16:40

sometimes I get selfish. But

16:42

you're right. You're

16:44

right. It

16:47

works. And I'm not sure why.

16:54

Maybe it works because the

16:56

children and mothers who arrived on

16:58

the bus will not be the

17:00

same people who returned to Ukraine.

17:03

No one's quite the same after

17:06

scaling a wall like this. When

17:09

we come back, teaching the

17:11

bereaved to rise. I'm

17:21

CBS News correspondent Major Garrett, host of

17:23

the podcast, Agent of Betrayal, the double

17:25

life of Robert Hanson. During the Cold

17:28

War, FBI agent Robert Hanson traded classified

17:30

secrets to the Kremlin in exchange for

17:32

cash and jewels. In the podcast, you'll

17:34

hear from Hanson's closest friends, family members,

17:37

victims and colleagues for the most comprehensive

17:39

telling of who Robert Hanson really was.

17:41

Spinach the entire series now, Agent of

17:43

Betrayal, the double life of Robert Hanson

17:46

is available on the Wondery app, Amazon

17:48

Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

18:00

at each other in the dark. So turn

18:02

off your lights and close your eyes. Follow

18:05

I Hear Fear on the Wondery app or wherever

18:07

you get your podcasts. Nathan

18:10

Schmidt's week-long summer camp for bereaved

18:12

Ukrainian children and their mothers began

18:15

with training in the Austrian Alps.

18:18

Then serious work began,

18:20

the kind of challenge that

18:22

might rise to a revelation. The

18:27

Hoa Tewan National Park embraces

18:29

some of the highest peaks in

18:31

the Austrian Alps and a

18:34

feat of engineering. The

18:36

Muzerboden Dam would be the first

18:38

big challenge for the 13

18:41

widows and their 20 children. A

18:43

zip line flew them to the

18:45

concrete face, where

18:48

they found

18:50

a steel cable to clip their harnesses

18:53

to. Footholes were

18:55

set across the span about

18:57

two and a half football

19:00

fields wide. The

19:02

children and moms literally could not

19:04

fall. And yet, the

19:07

Muzerboden Dam remained 32 stories of doubt.

19:13

Natalia Zaremba did not like the

19:15

measure of it. The

19:17

Russians had killed her husband, the

19:19

father of her two boys. Was

19:22

this risk foolish? Why

19:26

do you put them on this dam? We

19:28

put them on this dam because

19:30

we want them to confront discomfort.

19:33

We want them to confront their fears. Nathan

19:37

Schmidt co-founded the Mountain

19:39

Seed Foundation charity. We

19:42

met in the 700 square mile

19:44

park where the dam, finished after

19:46

World War II, is a tourist

19:49

attraction for rock climbers. What

19:51

makes this safe in your view? First off,

19:54

we have professional mountain guides. The second thing

19:56

is all the equipment that we have. They

20:00

train throughout the week on it. They know

20:02

how to use the equipment. And then particularly

20:04

the little children, they are

20:06

also short roped in to a

20:08

guide. So there's multiple layers of

20:10

security for them. And

20:18

so with all that security, the

20:23

challenge was not so much under their feet

20:26

as under their skin. Help

20:31

me, help me, help me. Yep,

20:33

and here we go. Miroslav

20:38

Kuchenkov, who told us his

20:40

late father never went back,

20:43

always forward, was

20:45

following his father's lead. You

20:49

know, in life, sometimes the thing that

20:51

gets you through a difficult point is

20:53

knowing that you've already done

20:56

something more difficult. What

20:58

difference do you see in

21:00

them when they reach the top?

21:03

The sheer look of joy on

21:05

their faces. Duh!

21:11

Perfect. Duh!

21:14

It's hard to even comprehend, and we know

21:16

that that will be a strong

21:20

point for them when they go back to

21:22

Ukraine. They will know that they've conquered

21:25

this wall and they've conquered their

21:27

own fears. Fears

21:30

conquered by Natalia Zaremba, who

21:32

at the end of the

21:34

climb was walking on air.

21:39

Yeah! I

21:49

don't feel joy the way I used to.

21:53

Wherever I am, no matter how good

21:56

a time I'm having, it's

21:58

hard to even comprehend. It's hard knowing my

22:00

husband could have been with us, but

22:03

he's not. And

22:06

even when I smile, the pain

22:08

in my heart is very strong.

22:15

The pain is strong, but

22:18

maybe not invincible. Natalia

22:22

was listening at the meetings

22:24

and words of inspiration like

22:26

those of Navy SEAL Dan

22:28

Knossen were getting through.

22:32

That bomb in Afghanistan took my legs, and

22:35

I can't change that fact. But

22:42

ultimately, it has to be up to

22:44

me to decide if it's going to

22:46

take the rest of my life, too. Thank

22:49

you all very much. Bill

22:58

for others, especially Svetlana

23:00

Malenchuk, words fell short.

23:03

She had told us her husband sent photos

23:05

of flowers from his trench until

23:08

the Russians killed him. She

23:10

said, life is a book that you

23:12

read your whole life. When

23:17

my husband died, I stopped

23:19

turning the pages in the book. Opening

23:24

a new chapter is

23:26

what clinical psychologist Amit Oran had

23:28

in mind. And so

23:30

she took the widows to a storybook

23:32

castle where she hoped to

23:35

scale the walls of Svetlana Malenchuk.

23:37

And I started to talk with

23:39

her about castle walls,

23:44

that we're going to see a castle where

23:47

they're always very deep,

23:50

tough, impenetrable walls. And

23:54

then I thought that her face looked

23:57

like that, that

23:59

it was hard to. see what's inside,

24:01

like this castle. And

24:04

I brought them to a wall, a side

24:06

wall of the castle where there are teeny

24:09

tiny windows. And I

24:11

said to them, right now I think you're

24:13

here at the bottom. And as you go

24:15

up, you're able

24:17

then to see three windows. I

24:20

said, unless you open that window, you

24:23

can't peer out and see the beauty

24:25

around you. You're trapped.

24:29

And ultimately what happened is several

24:31

of the women stood there on

24:33

the grass and opened up to each

24:35

other. She was one of them. It

24:38

was choking you. It was

24:41

choking you. The

24:44

next day, after the group session,

24:47

Svetlana had been thinking. She

24:50

came up to me and

24:52

said to me, it

24:54

was a very painful conversation we had.

24:58

And I made a decision. My

25:02

anger was choking me and

25:04

I decided to let it go so

25:07

I can breathe. Congratulations.

25:12

You've done hard work. I'm so happy for you.

25:18

She has a long way to go, but

25:20

she's understood that it's a choice at

25:23

least. The few things

25:25

she can control in

25:27

this world is

25:29

how open or closed she chooses

25:31

to be in her own castle.

25:35

You know, as you talk to the mothers,

25:37

none of them expected what happened in February

25:41

of 2022. The invasion, losing their

25:43

homes in many cases, losing

25:47

their future, or

25:49

at least their future being unknown. And

25:52

it's one of those moments in climbing where

25:56

you look all around and you don't know where

25:58

you're going to put your hand. and you don't

26:00

know where you're going to put your foot. You don't

26:03

know if you're going to be able to

26:05

stay in that position or fall. This

26:08

program is meant to show

26:10

them the footholds and the handholds,

26:13

to fill the tracks that they have to, and then

26:17

lead their children back up to

26:19

the mountain. On

26:21

day five, one mountain

26:24

remained. Keith and

26:26

Schmidt took the first steps from a

26:28

high tram station on an

26:30

ascent to the peak of Mount

26:32

Kichsteinhorn. It was a steep and

26:34

icy 570 feet to the ultimate test of the camp.

26:41

Like the dam, earlier, there was a

26:43

fixed cable to hook onto, but

26:46

like the dam, glancing

26:48

down looked fatal and

26:51

looking up, a cold, thin

26:53

glare exposed hours of struggle.

26:56

We followed Schmidt's lead and remembered what

26:58

he told us about the rope we

27:00

were on and its three lessons, community,

27:04

courage. And the

27:06

last thing is responsibility. And

27:09

this is probably the most difficult

27:11

one. And that

27:13

is when you're on the rope, you're responsible

27:15

for those that are on the rope with you. When

27:18

they're weak, you pull them up. When

27:22

they are showing signs of fatigue, you

27:25

encourage them. Look at me, man. Breathe

27:28

in. Two, three,

27:30

four, hold. Two,

27:32

three, four. We

27:35

hope that when they go home, that they

27:37

build their own communities, they add people to

27:39

their rope, that they

27:41

encourage them to face their fears and

27:43

have courage. courage

27:46

lifted them 10,508 feet, a summit reached

27:48

by everyone. Let's

27:55

go and dance! Including

27:58

Nathan Schmidt's neighbor. Academy classmate

28:01

Dan Knossen on

28:03

his prosthetics. It

28:05

was tough, but I'm happy to make it to the

28:07

top, and it was great to do it with everyone. Seeing

28:09

the kids climbing gave me

28:11

a lot of inspiration to keep pushing. Natalia

28:15

Zaremba's kids pushed to the top.

28:18

She had come to Austria

28:20

to find strength within herself,

28:22

but from the peak, she could

28:25

see where that kind of strength

28:27

truly comes from. We

28:33

have something that bonds

28:35

us more now, some new

28:37

achievements, which we experience

28:39

together, and that taught us

28:42

to be braver and stay

28:44

together, because only together

28:46

can we overcome this. Our

28:50

strength, she said, will be from being together.

28:58

Also among the climbers at

29:00

the summit was Miroslav Kupchenkov,

29:03

who told us now he

29:06

could do anything. What

29:08

is your hope for that? My

29:12

hope for them is that they can

29:14

remember the achievement

29:16

that they've had, and I also

29:19

hope they can remember the

29:22

stillness and the peace of

29:24

these mountains. You can't hear the sounds

29:26

of war here. You just

29:28

close your eyes and you feel like you can fly. Even

29:33

Svetlana Malinchuk took flight, rising

29:36

to the summit, and

29:38

at last to the high

29:40

open windows of her castle. I

29:43

was screaming. To be honest, I was simply

29:45

screaming. Having

29:50

breathed in full lungs of air,

29:52

I was screaming with my head

29:55

up toward, I don't know, God,

29:57

nature. I

30:01

was just getting rid of all the

30:03

negative. Has this

30:05

helped you in some

30:07

small way to heal? Yes,

30:11

it's a shock. Oh, well,

30:14

at least I managed to open the

30:16

bag of my sorrows. To

30:20

open their sorrows to the sky.

30:24

Five days before they clipped to

30:26

a rope a string of broken

30:29

souls. Now they

30:31

would return to the war. But

30:33

this time, resurrected in

30:35

strength and love and

30:39

invincible hope. Okay,

30:53

name that country. It's planted opposite Europe,

30:56

sitting proudly on the other side of

30:58

the North Sea. It's

31:00

a monarchy that features its

31:02

own currency, postage stamps, constitution,

31:04

national anthem, love of tea,

31:06

and a pair of handsome princes born two

31:08

years apart. We speak

31:11

of Sealand, a chrome of

31:13

real estate off the English coast that declared

31:15

its independence in 1967. Sealand

31:18

has a full-time population of one.

31:21

It has a landmass the size of

31:23

roughly two tennis courts. Its

31:25

leading export might be the

31:27

national mythology. A history of

31:29

piracy, coups, counter coups, rogues,

31:31

and offshore internet schemes. It

31:34

may make tiny Lichtenstein look like

31:36

China by comparison, but by rights,

31:39

Sealand is a sovereign nation. Join

31:41

us as we compile some notes from a

31:44

truly small island. We

31:46

can see Sealand over there, by the way, now. You

31:49

see that? Oh, there she is. Yeah,

31:51

yeah. On a starboard bow. Behold,

31:55

the world's smallest state. It's

31:57

a micronation in the extreme. A prince... which

32:01

sits, or stands, only

32:03

seven miles off the coast of England. Its

32:06

self-described reigning monarch is this guy,

32:09

Prince Michael Bates. Here we are. Yeah.

32:13

A platform and a couple of

32:15

concrete hops. Yeah. This

32:17

is a state. Yeah. Enter

32:20

some countries you arrive in style. Here,

32:23

you arrive in what's basically a

32:25

backyard swing, hoisted by a crank

32:27

60 feet above the North

32:29

Sea. And if you're

32:31

wondering about the safety regulations, yeah,

32:33

us too. Then again, when

32:35

you are a sovereign nation, you, by definition,

32:38

set your own rules. That's a hell of

32:40

a way to get into a country. The

32:42

only way to travel. On

32:44

the plus side, there's no long line at the

32:46

arrivals hall. I'm following you

32:48

to passport control. Mike Barrington fills

32:50

various roles and positions on sea

32:53

land. Right now, it's immigration

32:55

and customs. He also happens

32:57

to be the only permanent resident. Hey,

33:01

you all, sir? So now I'm official. You are? Welcome

33:04

to sea land. It

33:09

wasn't always named sea land, and it was

33:11

never intended to be a country. Originally

33:14

called His Majesty's Rough Tower,

33:16

it was a hastily constructed

33:19

nautical port. One of

33:21

several the British set up in the North Sea during

33:23

World War II. Hire! Equipped

33:26

with anti-aircraft artillery, these forts

33:28

were designed to prevent German

33:30

bombing raids on London. During

33:33

the war, more than 100 Royal Marines

33:36

were crammed into these towers for months

33:38

on end. Descending

33:40

the seven-story towers, it feels

33:42

and smells like a cross

33:44

between a treehouse and a

33:46

diesel-soaked submarine. First up,

33:48

the first-class bedroom suite. It's a nice

33:51

one. Nice TV. Our

33:54

claustrophobic tour continued downward. We're

33:58

underwater at this point. We've

34:00

still got a couple floors to go. You hear ships

34:02

going past, you hear the propellers going past. Ding,

34:05

ding, ding, ding. Like

34:07

many countries, there's a national cathedral. You've

34:09

got freedom of worship in the sea

34:11

land. I think there's even the

34:13

Qur'an here somewhere. On the

34:15

bottom floor, the jail. Two

34:17

days in the brig, bread and mortar. I

34:20

have to look at the sea land constitution and

34:22

see what my rights are. Very

34:24

limited. If

34:26

you're wondering by now how this concrete

34:29

island constitutes a country, stick with us

34:31

here. This is Radio Caroline on 199.

34:35

Back in the 1960s, these same

34:37

waters played host to the burgeoning

34:39

unlicensed commercial radio business that operated

34:41

on ships and old forts, with

34:44

a British government called Pirate Radio.

34:49

It was the time of the Beatles, the

34:51

Rolling Stones, the Kinks, but the

34:53

stodgy BBC, which had a

34:55

monopoly on broadcasting in Britain,

34:58

gave the rock bands just an hour of

35:00

airtime a week. The

35:05

younger set in Britain, millions of them

35:07

tuned their radio knobs to the pirate

35:09

station. In 1965,

35:12

Prince Michael's father, Roy Bates,

35:14

an enterprising swashbuckling World War

35:16

II veteran, commandeered a fort

35:19

where another pirate station operated.

35:22

It was the wild west on the North Sea.

35:25

The DJs may not be highly experienced, but

35:27

they certainly pulled their weight. Bates

35:29

set up Britain's first 24-hour outfit. He

35:33

called it Radio Essex. You're in tune

35:35

with Radio Essex broadcasting on to 22 meters. We're

35:38

doing a job that's needed. The public wants us to do the

35:40

job, so do the businesses. And

35:43

I think while this demand is here, we'll have remaining

35:45

business. But not for law. The

35:47

British government enacted a new law

35:50

rendering all pirate radio stations illegal.

35:52

Bates was forced to shut down, but

35:55

true to his nature, he was something

35:57

other than scared off. It

36:00

just would not back down. Form of surrender, if

36:02

he had said, you know what, my mouth? He

36:04

wouldn't know that word, surrender. I mean, I said,

36:06

no. Far from surrendering,

36:08

Bates seized another fort, Rough's

36:10

Tower, which was outside UK

36:13

territorial waters. Instead

36:15

of restarting Radio Essex, he did

36:18

something bolder still. On

36:20

September 2nd, 1967, he

36:22

declared it an independent state, sea

36:25

land, and declared himself its

36:27

prince. It was his

36:29

wife, Joan's birthday. And it

36:31

was, of course, a hugely romantic gesture to make my

36:33

mother a princess. In addition to taking you out to

36:36

dinner, I'm gonna make you a princess. He

36:38

didn't take out the dinner, but he just made her

36:40

a princess, yes. Prince

36:43

Roy and Princess Joan, along with their

36:45

two children, Michael and Penny, set up

36:47

home on sea land. The

36:49

sheer novelty of their lifestyle was a constant

36:51

source of amusement on the mainland. This

36:54

newsreel is from 1969. The

36:56

start of another day, even for the new royals,

36:59

is no different than for millions of others. The

37:01

request for a common copper. This

37:03

is Bates. How is it possible

37:06

to keep looking glamorous in conditions

37:08

like these? It's no more

37:10

difficult than anywhere else in the world. We're quite

37:12

comfortable here. We have all the things I want,

37:14

so makeups, brushes,

37:16

everything. At each 16,

37:18

Penny was less convinced. It was

37:21

freezing cold and it had no electricity. To

37:23

flush the toilet, you'd have to chuck a

37:25

bucket over the side, drop it down about

37:27

80 feet, pull it up and flush the

37:29

toilet. That was your toilet. Yes. The

37:32

Bates family had big ambitions to

37:34

turn sea land into a tax haven,

37:36

a luxury island and casino. And

37:39

they went all in on the trappings of statehood,

37:41

fashioning a flag, stamps,

37:44

currency, an anthem, even

37:47

a national motto, Imare

37:49

Libertas, from the sea of

37:51

freedom. As

37:55

teens, Michael and Penny would spend months on

37:58

sea land, holding down the fort as a result. were,

38:00

firing off warning shots and

38:02

tossing Molotov cocktails overboard to

38:05

fend off periodic attempts of

38:07

invasion from rivals and buccaneers.

38:09

When the press eventually came out and

38:12

took photographs, my father called me

38:14

down and he said, now look, he

38:16

said, how many times have I told you,

38:18

you do not hold a gun

38:20

like that? You weren't holding

38:22

the gun the right way. And actually, if you look at the picture,

38:24

the way I'm holding the guns is dreadful.

38:27

Firmly settled on Sealand, the bases

38:29

remained a nuisance to the British

38:31

government. So much so, as

38:34

a warning to the family, a team

38:36

of royal engineers blew up a similar

38:38

North Sea fort. At

38:43

Sealand's National Archives, which doubles as

38:45

Prince Michael's dining room table, we

38:48

were shown declassified plans drawn up

38:51

by the British Ministry of Defense

38:53

to take Sealand by force. The

38:56

following units are to be

38:58

available to the execution of the operation. Royal

39:01

Navy, two Wessex Five helicopters,

39:03

crafts from HM Naval Base

39:05

Chatham, Portsmouth, Medway and a

39:07

clearance diving team. It's

39:10

crazy, isn't it? But it wasn't

39:12

just the British government that wanted to

39:14

dislodge the family. In August 1978, a

39:18

band of rogue German and Dutch

39:20

lawyers and diamond merchants launched a

39:22

coup d'etat with designs of founding

39:24

their own offshore casino. They

39:26

arrived by helicopter with a film crew in

39:29

tow, taking Prince Michael by

39:31

surprise and then roughing him up.

39:33

They tied my elbows together,

39:35

my knees together, my feet together, my hands

39:37

down on my knees, and they picked me

39:39

up and they sponsored the other German. Let's

39:41

check this person over the side. He's too

39:43

much trouble. You're a full-on

39:46

political prisoner right now. Sealand

39:48

had fallen. After three

39:50

days, Michael was released. successful

40:00

counter coup? Yes, yes

40:02

they did. I jumped and landed

40:05

crash in the middle of the German. Son

40:07

of shotgun hit the day, boom! Normal Germans

40:10

went like that. Surrender, that's

40:12

it. You've reclaimed your principality. Yep.

40:15

Disarmed, the plotters were released, all

40:17

except for one. His name was

40:19

Puts. And he was made

40:21

to clean the bathroom, make coffee, and

40:24

impose a fine for treason. His

40:29

imprisonment brought a German diplomat to sea

40:31

land. But if you have

40:33

German emissaries coming here

40:35

to try and negotiate the release of this

40:37

prisoner, doesn't that imply

40:39

that he landed a

40:42

state that's having relations? Absolutely, it's

40:44

de facto recognition, isn't it? Happened,

40:46

yeah. This diplomatic visit was critical

40:49

for the Bates family. An

40:51

international treaty signed in the

40:53

1930s established four requirements for

40:56

statehood. One is recognition

40:58

by another state. Sea

41:00

land had already met the other

41:03

tests. The government, checked. The defined

41:05

territory, checked. And a

41:07

permanent population, checked thanks to

41:09

Michael Barrington. So what's your position

41:12

here? Well, I do mostly engineering

41:14

work, electrically and whatever.

41:16

Apparently I'm head of homeland security.

41:19

What are you protecting this place from? The

41:21

British government or anybody else that decides to take

41:23

us over. We're our country, after all, a small

41:26

nation. You're ready to use weapons

41:28

if you have to? If you need be, yes.

41:30

No hesitation. But in recent years,

41:32

to keep sea land afloat, the Bates

41:35

family has updated their pirate radio sensibilities

41:37

for the times. In

41:39

the early 2000s, they partnered with

41:41

fringe internet entrepreneurs who invested millions

41:43

with designs of turning sea land

41:46

into an offshore data haven. Prince

41:49

Michael's son, Prince James, showed us the

41:51

old server room. We used

41:53

to run things like gambling sites,

41:55

porn sites. We had

41:57

a few dubious people. People

42:00

asking us to do things that we didn't really

42:02

agree with. There was an

42:04

organ transplant company, like Human Organs, that

42:06

wanted to host out here, which my

42:09

father was against. Gambling and porn is

42:11

okay, but we draw a line at

42:13

harvesting human organs. Yes, exactly. That

42:17

venture failed dismally. But

42:19

today, James and his younger brother, Prince

42:21

Liam, are still harnessing the power of

42:23

the internet. The Bates family

42:25

won't disclose the size of the national

42:27

debt or the yearly budget, but

42:29

it is serviced through the online sale

42:31

of noble titles. Become

42:34

a Lord or Lady for $30. $600

42:37

will make you a Sealand duke or duchess. And

42:40

people are buying these titles. What is that all

42:42

about? I think it means so

42:44

many things to so many different people. Some

42:47

people love the act of

42:49

political defiance. Some people love the love story

42:51

that ran through it with my grandpa. Some

42:54

people love David

42:56

against Goliath. That

42:58

national myth, the very idea of

43:01

Sealand, has now far outgrown the

43:03

country itself. As for

43:05

the House of Bates, well, Roy and Joan

43:07

have passed on. And

43:10

the rest of the lineage lives in

43:12

the small English resort town of South

43:14

End-on-Sea. Princes James

43:17

and Leah run a business harvesting couples.

43:21

Princess Penny runs a Botox clinic

43:23

nearby. And seven years ago,

43:26

Prince Michael married and welcomed a new

43:28

princess, May She, a former artillery major.

43:30

A host out here which my father

43:33

was against. Gambling and porn is okay,

43:35

but we draw a line at harvesting

43:37

human organs. Yes, exactly. That

43:40

venture failed dismally. But today, James

43:42

and his younger brother, Prince Liam,

43:44

are still harnessing the power of

43:46

the internet. The Bates family

43:49

won't disclose the size of the national

43:51

debt or the yearly budget, but it

43:53

is serviced through the online sale of

43:55

noble titles. Become a Lord or

43:58

Lady for $30. 600

44:00

bucks will make you a Sealand duke or

44:02

duchess and people are buying these titles. What

44:04

is that all about? I think I think

44:06

it means so many things

44:08

for so many different people some people love the

44:12

The acts of political defiance some people love

44:14

the love story that ran through it with

44:16

my grand grandpa some people love that

44:18

You know David against

44:20

Goliath That national myth

44:22

the very idea of Sealand has

44:25

now far outgrown the country itself

44:28

As for the house of Bates well Roy

44:30

and Joan have passed on And

44:33

the rest of the lineage lives in the

44:36

small English resort town of South and on

44:38

sea Princess James and

44:40

Liam run a business harvesting cockles

44:45

Princess Penny runs a Botox clinic

44:47

nearby and Seven years

44:49

ago Prince Michael married and welcomed

44:51

a new princess Mei Xi a

44:54

former artillery major in China's People's

44:56

Liberation Six

44:58

decades after founding their private little

45:00

country the royal family remains committed

45:03

to the bit That's

45:05

the Golden Age for Sealand The

45:09

British Navy rolled up tomorrow and said

45:11

it's time to reclaim

45:13

Sealand How do you respond? Well

45:15

first of all I'm sure they wouldn't but if they

45:17

did I just get the best China out and make

45:19

them a nice couple tea As

45:23

Thanksgiving weekend draws to a close there's

45:25

still time for a toast on this

45:27

extended edition of 60 minutes stick

45:30

around as Sharon Alfonsi brings us

45:32

to the country of Georgia which

45:34

lays claim to 8,000

45:37

years of wine making history a

45:39

tradition honored for centuries by its

45:41

Orthodox monks every day

45:44

during the harvest The

45:48

monks make their way through the hallowed

45:50

halls of the monastery to bless the

45:52

wine cellar The

45:57

Great hosts

46:00

the bounty their vineyards bring. I'm

46:04

Bill Whitaker. We'll be

46:06

right back with Georgia's Ancient

46:08

Vines. If

46:14

you want to start a spirited debate

46:16

at your next holiday meal, ask your

46:18

guests which country invented wine. France,

46:21

Italy, or Greece might come to mind.

46:24

But most scholars say Georgia, the

46:26

small former Soviet republic, is the

46:28

birthplace of wine. Scientists

46:31

say wine residue found on pieces

46:33

of pottery in Georgia dates back

46:35

8,000 years. The

46:38

country of nearly 4 million shares

46:40

a border with Russia and has

46:42

survived thousands of years of invasions

46:44

and wars. Multiple dynasties

46:46

have come and gone, but

46:48

somehow many Georgian grapes

46:50

survived. Tonight, we'll

46:52

take you on a journey through

46:55

Georgia to meet the promoters and

46:57

protectors of Georgia's ancient vines. When

47:02

you first set foot in Georgia's capital Tbilisi,

47:04

she's hard to miss. Perched

47:07

high up over the city, the towering

47:09

mother of Georgia wields a sword in her

47:11

right hand to fend off her enemies and

47:14

a bowl of wine in her left to welcome

47:16

France. That

47:20

welcome and the country's deep history of

47:22

wine making wines through Georgia. The

47:26

vines of city dwellers cling to tiny

47:28

balconies. Small family

47:30

vineyards stretch along the countryside.

47:34

And larger producers export millions

47:37

of bottles globally. But

47:39

to fully understand the rich history of

47:41

wine in Georgia, we

47:44

went to the fertile river valley

47:46

of Keketi to see the Aliverdi

47:48

Monastery. At

47:51

the foot of the Caucasus Mountains, the

47:53

monastery looks like a fortress. We

47:56

were invited inside its walls. He

47:59

said, well, Our host was Georgian

48:01

Orthodox Bishop David. He

48:05

oversees three monks who live on the

48:07

grounds of the medieval compound. It is

48:10

a quiet life, committed to

48:12

God, and

48:14

the godly pursuit of creating a perfect

48:16

glass of wine. How

48:19

many bottles of wine do you make here?

48:24

20,000 bottles with a maximum of 50,000 bottles.

48:28

Our wine cellar capacity is 30 tons

48:30

of wine. Four

48:33

monks, 20,000 bottles. This

48:36

is a lot of work. Do they ever sleep? We

48:39

sleep and work at the same time.

48:43

Locals help work the land. But

48:46

for centuries, the monks have been the

48:49

guardians of these ancient vines. The

48:52

monastery dates back to the 6th century.

48:54

Bishop David told us vines were planted

48:56

on day one. Does

48:59

making wine make

49:01

you feel closer to God? Of

49:05

course. Whenever we are in

49:07

the vineyard or the wine cellar, we always

49:09

feel that God is close to us. Grapes

49:13

have long held a sacred place in

49:15

Georgia. In ancient times,

49:17

wine was considered a divine drink

49:19

and offered to the gods to

49:22

win favor. Georgian

49:24

soldiers tied a piece of grapevine inside

49:26

the chest of their uniforms to protect

49:28

them and to assure that if they

49:30

died in battle, a vine would sprout

49:32

from their heart. Man

49:35

was mortal, but Georgian vines

49:37

eternal. For centuries,

49:39

the Georgian monks have made wine

49:41

the same way, producing reds,

49:44

whites and even ambers. More on

49:46

that in a moment. The

49:49

process is uniquely Georgian. Under

49:52

the monastery, buried six feet deep in

49:54

the ground, giant clay

49:56

pots called quivary are used

49:58

to ferment. store and

50:00

age the wine. It

50:04

is the traditional way to make wine

50:06

in Georgia. Many homes have quibberies in

50:08

their cellar. But today

50:10

there are only a handful of quibbery

50:12

makers who carry on the tradition of

50:15

hand-building these clay beasts. Some

50:18

hold nearly 900 gallons of wine. Press

50:23

grapes, skins, stalks and the juice

50:25

are all mixed into the quibbery,

50:27

which is buried in the ground

50:29

to maintain a constant temperature. Every

50:33

day during the harvest the

50:38

monks make their way through the hallowed

50:40

halls of the monastery to bless the

50:42

wine cellar, the

50:47

grapes and

50:50

toast the bounty their vineyards bring. Most

50:57

of the monks wine is sold. Some

51:00

is shared during Sunday communion inside

51:02

the Alaverde Cathedral. On

51:08

this day a haunting chant stirred

51:11

inside the Cathedral Dome. The

51:16

chant called You Are the Vineyard

51:18

was written 900 years ago by

51:20

a former king turned monk to

51:22

honor Georgia's deep connection to its

51:25

religion and wine. Looked

51:29

by candles, it's hard to see the

51:31

scars of the Cathedral. It survived

51:33

earthquakes and invasions. In

51:38

an attempt to erase Georgian culture,

51:40

Russians whitewashed the Cathedral interiors in

51:42

the 20th century, covering

51:45

up 11th century frescoes

51:48

and used the monastery's quibberies to

51:50

store their gasoline. But

51:53

miraculously many of the vines

51:55

were unharmed. Bishop David

51:57

says today 100 grape varieties some

52:00

dating back 900 years are

52:03

still grown on the monastery's grounds.

52:06

And how does the wine taste? Not

52:09

to talk about taste. It's better to

52:11

taste it ourselves. Sitting

52:16

near the ancient queveries, the bishop

52:18

opened a bottle. When

52:22

tasting the queveri wine for the first

52:24

time, a person might

52:26

think they are trying something very different. Ooh,

52:28

a tasakhon, an amblar and a tasakhon. And

52:36

they say in Georgia that they

52:38

eat drinks and they eat. That's

52:41

what we have to be thankful to God. There's

52:45

much to be thankful to God

52:47

about in this glass. Of

52:51

course, it could not be any other way.

52:57

Heavenly, with notes of citrus, spices

53:00

and honey, it

53:02

is complex, like the history of Georgia,

53:04

but in a glass. Georgia's

53:07

future is also tied to its wines,

53:10

inspiring chefs like Takuna Kachichi

53:13

Lodze. How much is

53:15

wine a part of the story of this

53:17

country? This is, you know, the question, wine

53:19

or food or food or wine. You

53:22

know, it's so together because we

53:24

don't imagine our everyday life without the wine.

53:28

And the wine is one

53:30

of the most important parts in our

53:33

history and our culture and in

53:36

food also. Forty-nine-year-old

53:38

Takuna wasn't supposed to be a chef.

53:41

While pursuing a psychology degree in New York,

53:43

she was working at a restaurant and fell

53:45

in love with both the chef and cooking.

53:48

She dropped the psych degree and

53:50

the chef and enrolled in culinary

53:52

school in Manhattan. A

53:55

master chef, Takuna is now known

53:57

as the godmother of Georgia's culinary

53:59

evolution. She runs the

54:01

popular Cafe Leterra in the capital

54:04

of Tbilisi, a restaurant known

54:06

for its adventuresome menu and wine

54:08

pairings. We're credited with

54:10

revolutionizing Georgian cuisine.

54:13

How have Georgians responded to

54:15

that? I just started to

54:17

experiment, and then I

54:19

started to do new

54:21

recipes based on the traditional ones,

54:24

and then give this choice to

54:27

people. And in the beginning

54:29

it was big resistance. The

54:31

people think you have to keep tradition

54:34

untouched. But for me,

54:36

tradition is always innovation,

54:38

because every dish was

54:40

somehow innovative when it started.

54:43

Georgia sits at the crossroads of Europe

54:45

and Asia. A Georgian dinner can

54:48

look and taste like a trip around the

54:50

world. All these

54:52

influences starting from China, even from

54:54

America to Europe, it's gathered

54:57

here, it was a hub. And

55:00

that's why our traditional cuisine

55:02

was always fusion. Georgia

55:05

was fusion before fusion was fusion.

55:07

Exactly. And also because of so

55:10

many invasions, and we

55:12

were always under the rule of different

55:14

countries. And this brought

55:16

different tastes and spices and

55:19

also cooking methods. It's

55:22

all yours. Oh gosh. Perfect.

55:24

Culinary clashes are my favorite kind

55:27

of conflicts to cover. I reported

55:29

for duty at the dinner table.

55:32

Amazing. Yes, it's beautiful. This

55:34

is our first dish, like appetizer.

55:37

It's called pralice, the

55:40

vegetables with walnuts. We

55:43

cook in Georgia, less with

55:45

the walnuts. Walnuts are one

55:47

of the workhorses of Georgian cuisine. We

55:50

pulverized and used the same way the

55:52

French used butter, to make everything

55:54

creamier. Not surprisingly,

55:56

grape leaves are also a

55:59

favorite ingredient. This is

56:01

tolma, and you can't imagine

56:03

any table without this dish.

56:06

Our dinner included five courses with six

56:08

dishes, each with a different glass of

56:10

wine. We have this, like, a filet

56:12

mignon. Do you have a couch that

56:14

I can recline on? Yes. Chef

56:16

Takuna insisted we taste everything because

56:19

the wines came from different regions

56:21

and each had its own unique

56:24

flavor. We have so many great

56:26

wine makers, you know, and it is like a

56:28

new revolution, you know, and

56:30

not losing the old traditions,

56:33

they improve it and then continue doing

56:35

the great wines. But there

56:37

is no wine more distinctly Georgian than

56:40

this. You see the difference of the

56:42

colors? Yeah. That's why it's called amber.

56:44

Not orange. Yeah, no. Never

56:47

orange. No. Americans know what

56:49

to do with red wine, we know what

56:51

to do with white wine, but if you

56:53

put an amber wine out, I would not

56:55

know what I should be serving that with.

56:59

Actually, this is what's

57:01

very interesting. Amber wine,

57:04

it's like a universal wine. You

57:06

can drink with the vegetables, you

57:08

can drink with meat, but this

57:10

is what makes it unique, you

57:13

know. You can pair almost

57:15

with everything. It's versatile. I

57:20

noticed you said you don't like to eat when

57:22

you're cooking, but you will have a

57:24

sip, right? But I drink. Fine,

57:28

then you can say. Something...

57:31

Two hours later, the warmth

57:33

of Georgian hospitality were perhaps

57:35

all that wine washed over

57:37

us. It's like a Georgian

57:40

saying that the guests are from

57:42

the gods, so you have to

57:44

treat the guests like you treat

57:46

the gods. We usually hear about

57:48

guests from hell, but the gods sound a lot better. In

57:53

Georgia, we got guests really

57:55

from the gods. Cheers.

58:01

When we come back, you'll meet a guest who

58:03

came to Georgia for the culture, food, and wine

58:06

25 years ago and never left.

58:09

Today, he's credited with helping to

58:11

put Georgian wines on the map

58:13

and menus around the world. When

58:27

most of us order wine, we look

58:29

for a favorite variety, consider the region,

58:32

the age, or perhaps the cost. But

58:35

ordering a glass of wine from Georgia can

58:37

be a bit more complicated. The

58:39

former Soviet Bloc nation is the size

58:41

of West Virginia, but offers more than

58:43

40 varieties of wine,

58:46

each with a tongue-twisting name from

58:48

vines centuries old. Still,

58:51

Georgian wine is gaining popularity

58:53

beyond the country's borders. Last

58:55

year, nearly a million and a half bottles of

58:58

it were shipped to the United States, an

59:00

increase of nearly 30 percent from the

59:02

previous year. We headed

59:05

to Georgia's wine country to get a taste

59:07

for ourselves. Stretched

59:10

along eastern Georgia, more than 4,000

59:13

square miles of vineyards sit at the

59:15

base of its mountains like a welcome

59:17

map. This is the

59:19

Keketi region. The three-quarters

59:21

of the grapes used to make wine in

59:23

Georgia are grown here. In

59:26

the middle of one of Keketi's hundreds

59:29

of vineyards, we met an unlikely ambassador

59:31

of Georgian wine, an

59:34

American, 47-year-old John Worderman.

59:36

How does an American end up with all

59:39

of this? Well,

59:41

it started with a curiosity for

59:44

a country that the more I learned

59:46

about it, the more fascinating it was, and

59:48

nobody seemed to know anything about it, at least in

59:50

my world. Worderman grew up

59:52

a world away in Santa Fe, New

59:54

Mexico. He was studying art

59:57

in Russia when he visited neighboring Georgia.

1:00:00

he moved here, and in 2006, bought a 62-acre rundown

1:00:02

vineyard, hired

1:00:06

locals, and started Pheasants Tiers

1:00:09

Winery. Georgia

1:00:11

is the birthplace of Wong. The mild

1:00:13

climate and rich soil have made it

1:00:15

an ideal place to grow hundreds of

1:00:17

varieties of grapes for thousands of years.

1:00:21

At one time, the country reportedly

1:00:23

had more than 1,400 indigenous grape varieties.

1:00:27

Most were wiped out during the Soviet

1:00:29

era, when quantity replaced diversity.

1:00:32

John Werteman is part of a national

1:00:35

effort to recultivate Georgia's ancient vines and

1:00:37

bring them back to life. So

1:00:40

in Soviet times, out of 525

1:00:42

varieties, you had roughly four

1:00:44

or five that were the main ones that were

1:00:46

commercially available. So what happened to the rest? Luckily,

1:00:49

Georgians were still growing them in their

1:00:51

backyard. They were allowed to have

1:00:53

small private plots for their own personal use,

1:00:56

and they kept the ancestral varieties going. So

1:00:59

when we wanted to start to

1:01:01

bring back these ancient varieties together

1:01:03

with our friends, that was where

1:01:05

we were going. We were going

1:01:07

to the individual backyards of farmers

1:01:09

that kept growing the varieties that

1:01:11

their grandfathers and great-grandfathers had kept

1:01:13

alive. Climb

1:01:15

back all of the grape varieties

1:01:18

as something Georgians take seriously. A

1:01:20

kind of declaration of independence from

1:01:22

their former Soviet rulers. In

1:01:25

2014, the Georgian government opened

1:01:28

two research centers to locate,

1:01:30

study and grow those rare grape

1:01:32

vines. Scientists head into

1:01:34

the vineyards once a week to gather

1:01:37

critical data. DNA of grape

1:01:39

leaves is analyzed. Juice

1:01:41

is extracted in the field and

1:01:43

then tested in labs for disease. Healthy

1:01:46

vines are replanted. Today, there

1:01:48

are more than 500 native

1:01:50

grape varieties growing in Georgia.

1:01:54

At Pheasant's Tears, ancient Georgian methods

1:01:56

are used to make the wine.

1:02:00

skins and juice are all mixed

1:02:02

together, then poured in

1:02:04

giant quibberries, buried deep underground

1:02:07

and sealed with clay for the

1:02:10

mixture ferments and ages. This

1:02:12

is our lower quibberry

1:02:14

level. Is all the wine

1:02:16

here made in quibberries? Most

1:02:18

all of it. There's a couple of wines we'll

1:02:21

be tasting later that are on the fresher, lighter

1:02:23

side from western Georgia that we use stainless steel,

1:02:25

but everything of structure. So based

1:02:28

on where they are, they have a different

1:02:30

taste? Yeah, if they're in a

1:02:32

space that breathes versus a reductive

1:02:35

space. The wine typically

1:02:37

remains inside the quibberries for nine

1:02:39

months. This is where we age the

1:02:42

wines. Then it's bottled and

1:02:44

stored in a cellar. So

1:02:46

where are these bottles from? These

1:02:48

are from the last 15 years. Oh. It

1:02:50

allows us to understand how the wines

1:02:52

develop and what is the

1:02:54

most ideal time for releasing.

1:02:57

Nothing is rushed in Georgia, something

1:03:00

we witnessed during lunchtime at the

1:03:02

vineyard. For the harvest of 2023,

1:03:05

may it be healthy and long living. Workers

1:03:09

were celebrating the harvest with a

1:03:11

traditional Georgian feast called a Supra,

1:03:14

a lavish meal typically held

1:03:16

after weddings, funerals, baptisms and

1:03:18

both. During

1:03:21

their lunch, guests broke into souls. This

1:03:28

is a traditional Georgian folk song,

1:03:30

centuries old. If

1:03:41

you guys started dancing, lunch

1:03:48

hours stretched into dinner, and

1:03:54

then came the toast. For

1:03:57

children and for the children that are continuing

1:04:00

the tradition. A half

1:04:02

dozen of them before dessert. With

1:04:08

so many toasts, so many songs and

1:04:10

dancing, it's amazing anybody eats. Yeah,

1:04:13

but the Supras last for quite a

1:04:15

long time. If workers

1:04:17

go out to work for a few hours in

1:04:19

the field and they come back together, they'll have

1:04:21

a Supra and they'll have toasts about the things

1:04:24

that mean the most to them in

1:04:26

life. For Georgian winemaking, for

1:04:28

the great, the

1:04:30

history, the vessel, the varieties, and

1:04:33

the songs that were built around the feast. Some

1:04:36

people have called the Georgian Supra an

1:04:38

academy where basically people come together in

1:04:40

order to share what they know and

1:04:42

to learn from one another. So

1:04:44

nay kos kolas. But John Worderman says

1:04:46

schooling the rest of the world on

1:04:49

Georgian wines hasn't been so easy. First,

1:04:52

there are at least 40 varieties of

1:04:55

Georgian wines being served around the

1:04:57

world and even the

1:04:59

most sophisticated sommelier might struggle

1:05:01

to just pronounce them. Soperavi,

1:05:04

Casatelli, and Mitsvani don't

1:05:06

exactly roll off the

1:05:08

tongue. Then there's

1:05:10

the issue of that unusual color,

1:05:13

the giant ginger elephant in the

1:05:15

glass. I've noticed a couple of

1:05:17

people we've spoken to here, when you say

1:05:19

orange wine, they shudder a little bit and say

1:05:21

it's amber. Over the past

1:05:23

decade, more than 2,000 new vineyards have

1:05:26

taken root in the country. And

1:05:28

last year, Georgian winemakers made

1:05:30

more than $100 million. All

1:05:33

of a sudden, it's like watching a black and

1:05:35

white picture of a rainbow come to color again.

1:05:39

This diversity and expanse of color

1:05:41

is coming back to the Georgian

1:05:43

table after sleeping for

1:05:45

almost a few centuries. For

1:05:50

Georgian, it's another reason to celebrate.

1:05:53

For the rest of the world, it's a

1:05:55

chance to taste history. I'm

1:06:09

Bill Whittaker. We'll be back next

1:06:11

week with another edition of 60 Minutes.

1:06:39

Hi everyone, I'm Drew Barrymore,

1:06:41

host of, well, the Drew

1:06:44

Barrymore Show. And welcome

1:06:46

to the Drew Barrymore Show podcast.

1:06:49

Stream from the car, the train, the

1:06:51

shower. Wait, what's up? Does it work?

1:06:53

Well, you never know. Whatever you're into,

1:06:55

just take a moment to see the

1:06:58

sunny side of life with us. I

1:07:01

can't wait to go on this journey together.

1:07:03

Here are the new episodes of the Drew Barrymore

1:07:06

Show podcast every day. Monday

1:07:08

through Friday, listen on Saturday,

1:07:10

get your podcasts, or wherever

1:07:13

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1:07:25

members, you can listen to 60 Minutes

1:07:27

ad-free on the day. A decade more

1:07:29

than 2,000 new vineyards have taken root

1:07:31

in the country. And last

1:07:34

year, Georgian winemakers made more than $100

1:07:36

million. All

1:07:38

of a sudden it's like watching a black and

1:07:41

white picture of a rainbow come to color again.

1:07:44

This diversity and expanse of color

1:07:46

is coming back to the Georgian

1:07:48

table after sleeping for

1:07:50

almost a few centuries. For

1:07:55

Georgians, it's another reason to

1:07:57

celebrate. For the rest of the world,

1:07:59

it's a journey. chance to taste history. Woo!

1:08:04

Woo! I'm

1:08:14

Bill Whitaker. We'll be back next

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1:08:18

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Wait, what? That doesn't work. Well, you

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