Tsar Nicoulai Caviar Introduces New 'Reserve' Line

The Reserve CEO will be extremely rare and available in fine dining restaurants and in limited quantities at www.TsarNicoulai.com. Just as with a reserve line of wine, Tsar Nicoulai Caviar Founders, Mats and Dafne Engstrom, have identified an echelon of quality caviar within its CEO line. 2009 will mark the couple's 30th year in sustainably farming sturgeon for caviar during which they have seen a trend in the popularity of caviar coming from their bred sturgeon.

"The combination of quality, taste, affordability and sustainability has put our caviar at the forefront of the industry. Our reserve grade further sets us apart from other farmers - this is some of the most beautiful caviar we have ever seen," said Dafne Engstrom.

As with all of our CEO grades, the reserve is harvested from our sturgeon that swim in spring water, untouched by the pollutants, residual pesticides and mercury that is so common in wild fish and many varieties of farmed fish. All of our California Estate Osetra caviars are processed with just pure salt, unlike most imported farmed and wild sturgeon caviar that contains borax - an additive that FDA has banned for US produced foods but is permitted for imports.

The new Reserve possesses a golden brown to platinum gray color with a larger sized bead. Given the rarity of the Reserve and its already immediate popularity, we will age the reserve for only 2-3 weeks, allowing a quicker turnaround from production date to order date. The shortened aging process gives the caviar a much more subtle and delicate finish, a quality aspect that has rarely been available before. Mats Engstrom adds, "Typically, due to permitting and shipping logistics, Caspian and Iranian caviar is already 6 months old before it arrives into the US, lending it a much brinier and gamier finish. Our process allows us to make the caviar available almost immediately. The result is a creamy, nutty finish, and always has a fresh, clean undertone."