Former Glendale resident looks to revive Armenian winery tradition
12:43 25.07.2014
The Glendale News-Press presents the story of Varuzhan Mouradian, who
hopes to bring Western winemaking traditions to Armenia. Mouradian, a
wine enthusiast, left his job as an accountant in Glendale to move to
Armenia nearly three years ago.
Not far from Varuzhan Mouradian's Armenian vineyard, volcanic stones
from thousands of years ago dot the landscape of an ancient winery.
Armenia is home to one of the oldest-known winemaking facilities,
which researchers found in a cave a few years ago, but it's by no
means a wine mecca.
That didn't stop Mouradian, a former Glendale resident and wine
enthusiast, from buying open land in a valley there and planting grape
vines.
He dreams of turning his rows of Areni and Kakhet grapes, varietals
indigenous to Armenia, into a boutique winery fit with a Chateau
façade and tasting room -- a rarity in the country. He fell in love
with boutique wineries in Napa and the Santa Ynez valleys when he
lived in California and he wants to bring that same kind of ambience
to his homeland, no matter the risks.
"One day, I went with my wife to an Italian restaurant, and I looked
at all these nice bottles of wine, and I said, 'Look, one day, I will
be marrying wine. I will marry to the vine,'" he said from his home in
Yerevan, which is about 15 miles from his vineyard in the Ashtarak
Valley. "I am married to the vine and the wine is born from that
love."
There are about 20 winemaking enterprises in Armenia, according to a
2012 report written by an Armenian think tank analyzing the potential
growth for the country's wine sector. Comparatively, there are more
than 3,700 bonded wineries in California, according to the Wine
Institute, an advocacy group. Armenia and California are home to
roughly 3 million and 38 million people, respectively.
Most Armenian winemakers buy their grapes from small farms rather than
growing their own, according to EV Consulting's report. Between 1976
and 1980, Armenian wineries produced 88.4 million liters of wine,
dropping to 6.8 million in 2011.
EV Consulting attributed the slide to Soviet rule. Some winemakers
still use outdated Soviet equipment and value quantity over quality,
the report states.
But Mouradian believes Armenia can improve its wine reputation and
export fine wines. The government is slowly creating tax incentives to
encourage the sector's growth, he said, and a handful of vintners like
him want to create a tourist draw.
"We don't have Armenia as a wine country on the map," Mouradian, 48,
said. "I'm positive after five, six years, yes, Armenia will become
one of the wine countries known by the world."
Mouradian was born in Armenia, but moved to Glendale when he was 24 in
search of job and life opportunities. He met his wife and they later
had four children. He had a successful career and invested some of his
money in Armenian land and property, with hopes of one day selling it
and making a profit once the Armenian economy improved.
But he became ill and could no longer take the stress of his job. He
always admired his clients in the creative sector and yearned for a
change of pace.
"I was missing something," he said. "I thought I needed to do
something creative."
He and his family picked up and moved to Yerevan, but his eldest
daughter, a student at UCLA, stayed behind. Soon after moving,
Varuzhan reached out to his Armenian cousins to help him convert the
open land he bought into a vineyard.
Mouradian has the land, the grapes and has made a few test batches of
blended wines, but he doesn't have a name for his winery and he hasn't
put any bottles on the market.
"We did a couple barrels just for testing purposes, that's all," he
said. "I think they are good. They are perfect. Next year, I think
we'll go a little further."
http://www.armradio....nery-tradition/
