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ARMENIAN WINEMAKING DATING BACK TO 6,100 YEARS. "ARMAS ESTATE"


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#1 Yervant1

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Posted 14 February 2015 - 10:04 AM

ARMENIAN WINEMAKING DATING BACK TO 6,100 YEARS. "ARMAS ESTATE"

February 13, 2015

ArmAs is revitalizing Armenia's winemaking legacy by creating elegant
wines that stem from one of our country's best natural resources,
the idyllic terroir of the vine.

It is no coincidence that Armenia, known as the birthplace of the
vine, is also the site of the oldest known winemaking ruins, dating
back to 6,100 years.

Visit www.armas.am

Winemaker Emilio Del Medico has paid homage to this heritage by
creating award winning, elegant and distinct wines from estate grown
native varieties.

ArmAs Estate is a picturesque display of agricultural achievement, set
against the backdrop of the inspiring Mount Ararat. The 180 hectares
of previously desolate and disconnected rock-strewn countryside was
diligently transformed into a stunning panorama including vineyards,
orchards, and a world-class winery. The endeavor proudly involved
and united hundreds of people from various villages, countries, and
backgrounds who continue to teach and learn from one another. The
continued realization of the ArmAs Estate is illustrative of progress
through guidance and cooperation, and represents the assimilation of
tradition with development. Indeed, the ensuing ArmAs wines convey
these improvements, and speak especially of the abundant sunshine,
volcanic soil, undulating terrain and magnanimous earth of a resilient
culture.

Known as the birthplace of the vine, Armenia is the acknowledged site
of the origins, as well as domestication of the wild grape to its
cultivated contemporary form. This designation has both a biblical
testimony and an archaeological confirmation. According to the Old
Testament, Noah's Ark came to rest at the peak of Mount Ararat. As
the water subsided, Noah and his sons journeyed down to valleys of
modern day Armenia, and upon recognition of the fertile soil in this
unique terrain, they planted the first vines.

In 2010, carbon dating of remains discovered by archaeologists in the
Areni-1 Cave complex, in the Vayots Dzor region definitively proved
Armenia to be the site of the world's oldest-known wine production
facility, dating back to 6,100 years. The remains of grapes, seeds,
and dozens of dried vines were also found in this location, all of
the genus species Vitis Vinifera. Known as the "common grape vine,"
most wines produced in the world today are of this variety and have
their originating roots in the surrounding regions.

http://www.horizonwe...s/details/61554

 

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#2 Yervant1

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Posted 14 October 2016 - 09:50 AM

The Vintage News
Oct 11 2016
 
 
The oldest winery in the world is 6100 years old & it’s located in a cave in Armenia
 
 
asasdeffg.jpg
 

Wine has been a part of human life, culture, and diet, since time immemorial. In ancient Greece, wine was praised by poets, historians, and artists, and was frequently referred to in the works of Aesop and Homer.

 

Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, represented not only the intoxicating power of wine but also its social and beneficial influences.

Wine is far older than recorded history and could date back over 20 million years ago, as fermenting yeasts evolved together with fruit bearing flowering plants.

People began to grow grapes probably a little after they began growing wheat, around 8000 BC. In ancient times, wine was considered to be a magical, spontaneous gift of nature.

Dyonisos_Paphos_mosaic.jpgHellenistic mosaics discovered close to the city of Paphos depicting Dionysos, god of wine.

The oldest winery in the world has been uncovered in a cave in the mountains of Armenia. An international team of researchers discovered drinking bowl, a grape press, a cup, and fermentation jars dating to about 6,100 years ago in the cave at the area called Areni-1 in Armenia.

Older evidence of wine drinking has been found, but this is the earliest example of complete wine production.

The Areni-1 cave complex is located in the village of Areni in the Vayots Dzor province of the Republic of Armenia. 7 months before the winery was discovered, the world’s oldest leather shoe, the Areni-1 shoe, was found in the same cave. The village of Areni it’s known for its wine production.

1024px-Areni-1_cave_entrance.jpgThe entrance of the Areni-1 cave complex. Photo Credit

The press and wide, shallow vat that was found in the cave are similar to foot-stomping type equipment used by people throughout the region even up into the 19th century.

Botanists examined the find say it was the species Vitis vinifera, the same one used to produce the vast majority of wine today.

Gregory Areshian, co-director of the excavation and assistant director of the University of California Los Angeles’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology says the wine would be comparable to a modern unfiltered red wine and may have had a similar taste to a merlot.

1280px-Areni-1_cave_panorama.jpgPanorama of the Areni-1 site along the Arpa River. Photo Credit

As Areshian, says before this winery was discovered, the oldest known winery was in Israel and dated to 1650 BC.

Archaeologists could not tell a lot about the people who distilled and drank the wine, but for them, it’s clear that the people who produced wine in the cave winery used it for ceremonial purposes. Probably for funeral ceremonies, since it was discovered that the cave was once an important cemetery site.

Areni-1_Cave_Interior.jpgThe archaeological site of Areni-1 in 2012. Photo Credit

This discovery shows that people developed agriculture and that they had horticultural skills even back in 4,000 BC. And as Areshian says, “Producing this wine would have been a high technology of the time incorporating detailed knowledge of watering cycles, pruning the vines, how to deal with pests and the fermentation process itself, which is more complex than brewing beer.” 

http://www.thevintag...ave-in-armenia/


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#3 Yervant1

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Posted 02 November 2016 - 07:45 AM

TravelersToday
Nov 1 2016
 
 
Rebirth Of The World's Oldest Winemaking Regions In Armenia

Travelers Today       By    Angela Ordonez

Updated: Nov 01, 2016 02:33 PM EDT

armenia-wine-film-in-english-mpg.jpg

According to news report by Smithsonian, an Armenian wine expert highlighted the best places to experience the rebirth of a wine culture stifled under Soviet rule

 

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Armenia has been recognized as the foundation of wine making. Even the 18th Century BC Kings of Urartu coined the ancient Armenia as the "land of the vineyards".

Assyrian armies wondered the massive quantities of its vines and trees. In Genesis, it is in the mountain of Ararat where Noah first planted its seed as explained in Smithsonian.

The report also states that Armenia's culture in traditional winemaking had been changed during the Soviet rule. 

Researchers in the University of California, Los Angeles and the Armenian Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, discovered the oldest winery in southeastern Armenia, in the village of Areni.

Driven by the recent discovery, a new generation of post-communism vintners has set out to regain Armenia's winemaking legacy.

Mr. Vahe Keushguerian, the founder of Semina Consulting and project manager at Karas Winery.

Vahe is committed to reinvigorating the Armenia's wine culture. He said that Armenian viticulture is undergoing a "rebirth".

"There's a very good, positive energy in Armenia now," Vahe said.

"It's the right time to discover what's happening", he added in a statement in Smithsonian.

To experience the best of Armenia's wine renaissance, Mr. Vahe Keushguerian recommends the following Wineries destinations, as specified in the Smithsonian news report:

Zorah Wines in Rind, Vayots Dzor - the Zorah Karasi Areni Noir is one of the best wines in the world, as Bloomberg named it.

Old Bridge in Yeghegnadzor, Vayots Dzor - Old Bridge B&B is a family-run vineyard that doubles as a bed and breakfast. Guests can also visit the ancient bridge to which the winery is named.

Hin Areni in Areni, Vayots Dzor - the winery features state-of-the-art equipment, but the team at Hin Areni handpicks their grapes and stores them in barrels made from local, Artskah oak.

Getnatoun in Vernashen, Vayots Dzor - uses natural fermentation methods and a meticulous production process to craftaward-winning wine varieties

Van Ardi in Ashtarak, Aragatsotn - spreads out over rolling hills in picturesque Ashtarak, an ancient winemaking region comparable to Vayots Dzor.

Mr. Vahe was asked what needs to be done to revive the Armenia's wine industry. His answers tackle about the need to reacquire our wine culture, pointers on the challenges regarding narrative of the industry and marketing

"I am a positive person and I see huge potential in the future of Armenian wine. We are blessed with good vineyards. But one thing we lack is institutional support. We don't have the resources for research," he said during his interview with Exotic Wine Travel.

Video: https://youtu.be/fUDWdGZJWLQ

http://www.travelers...ons-armenia.htm

 

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#4 Yervant1

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Posted 15 February 2017 - 09:19 AM

Smithsonian
Feb 14 2017
 
 
Unearthing Armenia’s Giant, Ancient Earthenware These 240-gallon clay karases, crucial to the early development of winemaking, once held enormous value

image: http://thumbs.media....00_q85_crop.jpg

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The enormous 240-gallon clay vessel, or karas, was nestled snugly in the corner of Asli Saghatelyan’s maran (storage cellar) in Chiva, a modest village in the Vayots Dzor region of Armenia. Asli and her son Mushegh watched with curious faces as I beheld their egg-shaped earthenware with awe.

 

The Saghatelyans no longer use this forlorn family heirloom, the girth of which exceeds the width of the door’s frame. It belonged to the family’s now-deceased patriarch, who used it to make homemade wine through a traditional process of fermentation and storage that people in this region have used for millennia. At one point, the family possessed at least five of them. Today only two are still intact.

This scene of giant karases, now sitting dusty and idle for decades in the basements of Armenia’s villagers, is a strangely common one in this particular region. The villagers don’t use them anymore, but the pots are so large they cannot be transported it out of their homes without the karas being smashed, or the wall of the basement being demo-ed. You can imagine the residents of Chiva rarely choose the latter option.

Not even a half hour into my visit, a neighbor stopped by to investigate my foreign presence in the village. “Oh, that’s what you’re looking for? We also have karases. They’re in our basement!”

The karases I saw that day date back to mid-twentieth century, but it’s not the age of the Minasyans’ and the Saghatelyans’ pots that made them so interesting to me. It’s the threat of their extinction in the region. Karases have had an uninterrupted six millennia presence in this part of the world, but only in the last few decades, they’ve fallen into obscurity.

image: http://public.media....asparyan-wr.jpg

boris-gasparyan-wr.jpgBoris Gasparyan, researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, led the excavations of Areni-1. (Photo by Karine Vann, Smithsonian)

Boris Gasparyan, a researcher at the Institute for Archaeology and Ethnography (IAE) in Armenia’s National Academy of Sciences, who led the excavations at the now-famous Areni-1 cave complex, has spent much time pondering the phenomenon of karas.

His interest intensified after he and his team discovered one of the world’s oldest wine production facilities in Areni-1. The numerous clay pots uncovered at the site once held some of mankind’s earliest experiments in viticulture. Chemical analyses even allowed researchers to speculate that ancient peoples mixed wine and blood together, leading wine expert Tim Atkin to joke in 2012 when he visited the site, that it “gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘full-bodied wine.’”

The value of karases across millennia appears to be, judging by its morphology and physical evolution, defined primarily by their intimate relationship to wine. Gasparyan says that any other functions were secondary, though “people used them even as coffins!”

In the first millennium BC, in the Kingdom of Van (also known as the Urartian Kingdom), karases reached their peak—in size, technology, and quality. Wine had become a valuable commercial commodity since many neighboring empires lacked the ideal climates for growing grapes. “We can even compare wine to U.S. dollars,” Gasparyan said. “Wine was circulating. It had great value. It was money. It was not only for consumption.”

Urartian kings grew desperate to develop methods of storing their precious commodity in large quantities. Experimenting with clay forms, which had been the material used for storing liquids in many ancient civilizations, provided an immediate solution. Pottery eventually developed into a separate and thriving industry in Urartu, second only to agriculture, and just as the history of wine is critical to understanding karas, its relationship to clay is just as important.

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karmir-blour-wr.jpg__600x0_q85_upscale.j
 

According to an article investigating Urartian karases by historians Leman Haupt and Grigor Khapantsyan in the 1950s, craftsmen would make six to ten karases simultaneously, using their fingers to shape ribs around the opening in an intricate process of coiling. But by far the most complicated element in making them, distinguishing the vessels from other clay-made instruments, was the process of drying and baking, which required an oven that could fit the enormous size of an Urartian karas.

Archaeological excavations in 1949 in the administrative and economic center of Teishebaini (Karmir Blour in Armenian) confirmed the advanced state of the Urartians’ karas making. In this famous site twenty minutes outside of Armenia’s capital, researchers found cellars containing rows and rows of hundreds of giant vessels, with cuneiform inscriptions on their rims indicating an intricate system of labelling volume. This cellar alone stored upward of 100,000 gallons of wine.

Karases maintained value long after Urartian rule. By the early twentieth century, one karas was worth an estimated three or four hundred rubles, about the cost of a cow. Since this was a large sum for most villagers, it was important to regulate an insurance policy. In 1184, Mkhitar Gosh devoted a chapter to karases in Datastanagirk, Armenia’s first legal document, providing purchasers with a clause that reads eerily similar to a one-year warranty.

When Armenians moved toward industrial winemaking in the twentieth century, demand for these traditional storage vessels inevitably decreased. Mass production in Soviet factories meant wine was now available in grocery stores. Domestic winemaking—and by association, karases—spiralled into obsolescence in Armenia’s developed areas.

image: http://public.media....6/shnogh-wr.jpg

shnogh-wr.jpgExcavations in Shnogh, Lori Province, in 2009 revealed a thirteenth century winery. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Suren Hobosyan)

In Vayots Dzor and Armavir, regions historically tied to winemaking, rural communities continued using karas well into the 1990s, but the generation that used them is nearly gone. Asli Saghatelyan told me that after her father-in-law passed away, her children opted to use other methods of homemade wine production. “Different generations gained different interests. My son knows how to make wine using karas, but we prefer to use more modern technology, as the karas is quite a hassle.”

Professor Suren Hobosyan, head of the ethnography department at the IAE, can attest to those difficulties. In addition to the karas, he says there was an elaborate “kit” of vessels and instruments for domestic wine production. It takes forty days to make wine in the karas, and once it is sealed it will stay good for years. However, when you open it, you have to consume it very quickly—approximately ten to fifteen days—before it spoils.

For this reason, opening a karas became a ceremonial ritual. Many rural communities saved karas openings for weddings and other joyful events. Sometimes the opening was its own cause for celebration, and villagers would invite their friends and family to partake in the festivities.

Which brings us back to the last generation of giant egg-shaped pots waiting to be disposed of in villagers’ basements. Who, if anyone, still uses the karas today? How were Armenia’s Georgian neighbors able to retain this tradition and go on to gain international recognition for it? And, perhaps most importantly, is there anyone alive in Armenia who still knows how to make them?

image: http://public.media....he-world-wr.jpg

drink-the-world-wr.jpg(Photo courtesy of drinktheworld.com)

Karine Vann is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn and a storytelling contributor to My Armenia, where she writes about Armenia’s rich natural and cultural heritage.


http://www.smithsoni...ware-180962166/


#5 Yervant1

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Posted 03 March 2017 - 10:50 AM

f58b83fab5121a_58b83fab51258.thumb.png

Economy 19:52 02/03/2017 Armenia
Armenian wineries win 23 medals at international wine award

Armenian wineries recorded unprecedented success at the “MUNDUS VINI 20th Grand International Wine Awards” held in Germany on February 25. The Ministry of Agriculture reports the products presented by Armenian wine companies won 23 medals in total, including 10 gold and 13 silver.

As the release informs, in total 58 varieties of Armenian sparkling and fortified wine represented by 19 wineries were presented to the highly qualified international jury comprising around 200 oenologists, wine-makers, professional wine traders, sommeliers and expert journalists with Armenian winemaker, Head of “Trinity” Company Artem Parseghian among them.

The competition registered some 6,000 entries from 44 countries representing the major wine-growing regions in the world. With number of prizes won Armenia left behind countries such as Georgia (4 Gold, 7 Silver), Moldova (8 Gold, 12 Silver), Macedonia (6 Gold, 3 Silver), Romania (6 Gold, 5 Silver), China (1 Gold, 1 Silver). In terms of the overall medals won, Armenia shared the 14th position with New Zealand and Hungary.

Meantime, in the scope of the international award the Director at “Golden Grape Armas” winery Viktoria Aslanyan made a presentation about Armenian wines that was recognized as the best presentation.

Armenian wineries’ participation in the event was facilitated by the Viticulture and Winemaking Foundation of Armenia supported by the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI).

As the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture reports, the main goal of the participation at the fair was to introduce the Armenian wine to foreign buyers and seek expansion of the consumption market. The ministry has also released the list of the winners.

http://www.panorama....e-award/1737628


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#6 Yervant1

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Posted 14 September 2017 - 08:32 AM

The Smithsonian
Sept 13 2017
 
 
Armenia Might Be One of the Oldest and Youngest Beer-Making Countries in the World  

 

header.png(Dargett)

In 1984, Charlie Papazian authored The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, a landmark text (now in its fourth edition) that laid out for the first time in simple, straightforward terms, the basic formula for making beer in the comfort of one’s home.

Papazian soon became the guardian of an entire generation of brewers and his calming mantra, “Relax, Don’t Worry, Have a Homebrew,” set the cultural stage for beer to become more than just a beverage in modern America, but a way of life. The last few decades have witnessed the number of breweries in the United States jump–​or rather, skyrocket–​from a meager 100 the year his book was published to just over 5000, as reported last spring by the Brewer’s Association (an organization Papazian himself helped found).

image: https://public-media...678/image_1.jpg

image_1.jpg(Photo via brewersassociation.org)

But while nothing jostles one’s beard hairs like a freshly poured Northern California IPA, this barley-based beverage had to travel a long way before it became the drink of choice for tatted, plaid-wearing urbanites across the nation. The oldest proto-beers trace back, not to Europe and our colonial forefathers, but to the Fertile Crescent, and one of the first known written mentions of it in the 4th century BCE come from the travel diary of the ancient Greek mercenary, Xenophon, as he wandered across what was then, quite coincidentally, Papazian’s ancestral homeland: Armenia.

Though ethnicity has never been a motivating factor in Papazian’s beer obsession, one must admit, it is rather serendipitous. And even more so now that the very movement he’s helped spearhead in America, filled with DIY microbreweries and brewpubs, has finally made its way full circle. As remarkable as it sounds, Armenia might just be both one of the oldest and one of the youngest nations in the history of beer making.

Certainly, much has transpired since Xenophon sipped on that strange barley concoction in the Armenian highlands over two thousand years ago, but unfortunately for beer, the well-documented history of wine in the region usually takes center-stage. The little we know about Armenia’s historic brewing habits unfolds primarily within the last two hundred years and, like most ‘then-and-now’ type stories in former Soviet countries, it is defined by the rise and fall of that peculiar Russian breed of socialism we call the U.S.S.R.

In the late-19th century, when we start to see the first mentions of beer factories in Armenia, beer was emerging as a lucrative industry in the Russian Empire. Factories were opened in Alexandrapol (now Gyumri) and Kars, areas which had historically inherited European brewing techniques from medieval monks and which were also well-disposed to growing local ingredients, like barley. While Kars is no longer part of modern-day Armenia, the beer factory in Gyumri still exists and though it operates out of a newer building, the historic factory from 1898 has been preserved and curious, beer history buffs visiting the area can take tours.

In Yerevan, the most famous factory was Zanga Brewery, located in the picturesque Hrazdan River Gorge. Founded in 1892 by Harutyun Avedyants, the son of a successful factory owner. Zanga produced only one style of beer, a traditional German Bock. For a while, business was good and the brand achieved some international success, both across the Russian Empire and in Europe (even winning some awards in Naples and Milan).

image: https://public-media...4f8/image_3.jpg

image_3.jpgHrazdan gorge in Yerevan where Harutyun Avedyants' Zanga beer factory was located. (Image via Sputnik.am)

In 1917, Lenin’s communists seized power and all major factories were nationalized. When Armenia became an S.S.R., Avedyants, like many other successful entrepreneurs, lost his business. Without the specialized expertise required for beer production, however, the business began to go under. So, on March 1st, 1924, in a sobering twist of fate, Avedyants was hired as an employee of the very factory he had founded over thirty years earlier. After his death in 1926, the factory closed and there would not be beer production in Armenia again until after World War II.

These were the dark ages for beer in the U.S.S.R. Alcoholism was a huge problem affecting worker productivity, so the state began actively discouraging alcohol consumption. When beer making finally did return to Armenia in the 1950s, it did so with few innovations. Picking up where they left off, beers made in the traditional German pilsner style, popular in the Russian Empire, came to dominate industry. That, combined with anti-drinking propaganda, resulted in an extremely homogeneous market in which any variety from outside the Iron Curtain had to be procured through an underground black market.

image: https://public-media...aa9/image_4.jpg

image_4.jpgAn anti-alcohol Soviet propaganda poster from 1929; the text reads: “A friend of vodka is an enemy of the Trade Union”. (Image via redavantgarde)

A network of subversive beer drinkers emerged, gathering in Soviet Armenia’s watering holes. The good stuff was possible to find – for the right price – if you had the right acquaintances. Novelist Gurgen Khanjyan recalls these days nostalgically, “The old Yerevan beer lovers were not small in numbers… We used to talk about everything, but there was a sense that an invisible eye was watching us. The beer lover of an independent country is different. He enjoys beer differently, freely... unafraid, uninhibited…”

So while Americans in the 1980s were busy heeding the calming mantra of Charlie Papazian (“Relax, Don’t Worry, Have a Homebrew!”) and opening their hearts and minds to the endless possibilities being created by the growing craft beer movement, Soviet citizens were scuttering through dimly lit alleys, risking their freedoms for a highly-coveted lager from nearby Czech Republic.

Naturally, a more liberal market brought about by the fall of the Soviet Union and Armenia’s independence has done wonders for the alcohol industry in Armenia. According to a reportfrom 2015, consumption in 2014 was 24.5 million liters of beer – a figure which is up 32% from 2010. But while these numbers sound promising, 80% of beer consumed in Armenia is produced by only a handful of mainstream breweries who offer a generic product, which is affordable, but deviates little from the pilsners of Soviet times.

Fortunately, 2012 signified the beginning of a cultural shift with the opening of several new beer-oriented establishments in the city. “Back then, there was a stereotype that breweries were mostly places for men,” observes founder Armen Ghazaryan, founder of one of Armenia’s first craft brewpubs, Beer Academy, “So from the very first day we focused on being a family place.” Ghazaryan’s establishment has evolved from an uncertain novelty to a successful business with a loyal following from locals of all ages.

But craft beer as a concerted cultural movement in Armenia didn’t take off until the spring of 2016 with the launch of Dargett. Founded by two brothers, Aren and Hovhannes Durgarian, Dargett is a brewpub that has embarked on countless firsts since it opened: the first IPA made on Armenian soil, the first cider made from Armenian apples, the first fruit beer in Armenia (a lovely ale infused with Armenia’s most abundant and symbolic fruit: apricot). Everything they touch turns to ‘first’.

image: https://public-media...743/image_5.jpg

image_5.jpg(Image via Dargett)

The variety Dargett’s founders strive for is impressive, even for longtime veterans of brewing; around twenty styles are rotating on tap at any given point, all of which have been crafted on site in the restaurant’s downstairs dining area where behemoth, steel tanks transported from Italy last year are visible to diners behind large panes of glass. “I’m sure they [mainstream brewers in Armenia] think we’re naïve lunatics,” says Aren Durgarian, “Because why brew in variety when they’re selling millions of just one style?”

But despite this skepticism​, Dargett and Beer Academy have both evolved into highly successful businesses with plans for expansion, even while serving what might arguably be the world’s most affordable craft beer at less than $2 a pop. “We need to be able to reach young people who may not have access to this product if it were too expensive," the Durgarians explain, "We want them to test our beer, since the youth is the main component in any cultural revolution.”

image: https://public-media...e34/image_6.png

image_6.pngDargett co-Founder, Aren Durgarian (Biayni Sahari/Yerevan Magazine)

The price is all the more surprising since starting a brewery in a country like Armenia is a very expensive and risky undertaking. Unlike brewers in the U.S., with access to developed supply chains and expedited shipping models, the Durgarians say they must order their ingredients from abroad at least a year in advance. A local supply chain, while not out of the question, just isn’t realistic right now.

 

But what is an Armenian beer if it’s made with all foreign ingredients? And what did Xenophon’s mysterious barley drink of yesteryear taste like? One can only hope that consumers’ growing curiosity will someday soon provide the incentive for answering these questions.


http://www.smithsoni...orld-180964860/


#7 Yervant1

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Posted 03 February 2018 - 10:41 AM

PanArmenian, Armenia
Feb 2 2018
 
 
Medieval wine press discovered in Armenia
251580.jpg
February 2, 2018 - 17:23 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - A medieval wine press has been unearthed during construction work near a school in the Armenian city of Yeghegnadzor, Argishti Mikayelyan, a Facebook user, said in a post on Friday, February 2.

Excavations were carried out director of the Geological Museum of Yeghegnadzor, archaeologist Karen Azaryan.

“This (the find - ed.) comes to prove that Vayots Dzor province has had a wealthy winemaking culture since ancient times which has survived and continues developings,” the user said.

photo_251580_d5f6b27ee.jpg

The 6100-year-old Areni winery was discovered in 2007 in the Areni-1 cave complex in the village of Areni again in the Vayots Dzor province. The excavations of the winery were completed in 2010.

http://www.panarmeni...ng/news/251580/


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#8 Yervant1

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Posted 05 May 2018 - 08:19 AM

The National Geographic Magazine
May 4 2018
 
 
EARLIEST KNOWN WINERY FOUND IN ARMENIAN CAVE

Barefoot winemakers likely worked in cave where oldest leather shoe was found.

by James Owen

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As if making the oldest known leather shoe wasn't enough, a prehistoric people in what's now Armenia also built the world's oldest known winery, a new study says.

Undertaken at a burial site, their winemaking may have been dedicated to the dead—and it likely required the removal of any fancy footwear.

Near the village of Areni, in the same cave where a stunningly preserved, 5,500-year-old leather moccasin was recently found, archaeologists have unearthed a wine press for stomping grapes, fermentation and storage vessels, drinking cups, and withered grape vines, skins, and seeds, the study says.

"This is the earliest, most reliable evidence of wine production," said archaeologist Gregory Areshian of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

"For the first time, we have a complete archaeological picture of wine production dating back 6,100 years," he said. 

The prehistoric winemaking equipment was first detected in 2007, when excavations co-directed by Areshian and Armenian archaeologist Boris Gasparyan began at the Areni-1 cave complex.

In September 2010 archaeologists completed excavations of a large, 60-centimeter-deep vat buried next to a shallow, 1-meter-long basin made of hard-packed clay with elevated edges.

The installation suggests the Copper Age vintners pressed their wine the old-fashioned way, using their feet, Areshian said.

Juice from the trampled grapes drained into the vat, where it was left to ferment, he explained.

The wine was then stored in jars—the cool, dry conditions of the cave would have made a perfect wine cellar, according to Areshian, who co-authored the new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Wine Traces

To test whether the vat and jars in the Armenian cave had held wine, the team chemically analysed pottery shards—which had been radiocarbon-dated to between 4100 B.C. and 4000 B.C.—for tell-tale residues.

The chemical tests revealed traces of malvidin, the plant pigment largely responsible for red wine's colour.

"Malvidin is the best chemical indicator of the presence of wine we know of so far," Areshian said.

Ancient-wine expert Patrick E. McGovern, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, agrees the evidence argues convincingly for a winemaking facility.

One thing that would make the claim a bit stronger, though, said McGovern, who wasn't involved in the study, is the presence of tartaric acid, another chemical indicator of grapes. Malvidin, he said, might have come from other local fruits, such as pomegranates.

Combined with the malvidin and radiocarbon evidence, traces of tartaric acid "would then substantiate that the facility is the earliest yet found," he said.

"Later, we know that small treading vats for stomping out the grapes and running the juice into underground jars are used all over the Near East and throughout the Mediterranean," he added.

Winery Discovery Backed Up by DNA?

McGovern called the discovery "important and unique, because it indicates large-scale wine production, which would imply, I think, that the grape had already been domesticated."

As domesticated vines yield much more fruit than wild varieties, larger facilities would have been needed to process the grapes.

McGovern has uncovered chemical and archaeological evidence of wine, but not of a winery, in northern Iran dating back some 7,000 years—around a thousand years earlier than the new find.

But the apparent discovery that winemaking using domesticated grapevines emerged in what's now Armenia appears to dovetail with previous DNA studies of cultivated grape varieties, McGovern said. Those studies had pointed to the mountains of Armenia, Georgia, and neighbouring countries as the birthplace of viticulture.

McGovern—whose book Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages traces the origins of wine—said the Areni grape perhaps produced a taste similar to that of ancient Georgian varieties that appear to be ancestors of the Pinot Noir grape, which results in a dry red.

To preserve the wine, however, tree resin would probably have been added, he speculated, so the end result may actually have been more like a Greek retsina, which is still made with tree resin.

In studying ancient alcohol, he added, "our chemical analyses have shown tree resin in many wine samples."

Ancient Drinking Rituals

While the identities of the ancient, moccasin-clad wine quaffers remain a mystery, their drinking culture likely involved ceremonies in honour of the dead, UCLA's Areshian believes.

"Twenty burials have been identified around the wine-pressing installation. There was a cemetery, and the wine production in the cave was related to this ritualistic aspect," Areshian speculated.

Significantly, drinking cups have been found inside and around the graves.

McGovern, the ancient-wine expert, said later examples of ancient alcohol-related funerary rituals have been found throughout the world.

In ancient Egypt, for example, "you have illustrations inside the tombs showing how many jars of beer and wine from the Nile Delta are to be provided to the dead," McGovern said. 

"I guess a cave is secluded, so it's good for a cemetery, but it's also good for making wine," he added. "And then you have the wine right there, so you can keep the ancestors happy."

Future work planned at Areni will further investigate links between the burials and winemaking, study leader Areshian said.

Winemaking as Revolution

The discovery is important, the study team says, because winemaking is seen as a significant social and technological innovation among prehistoric societies.

Vine growing, for instance, heralded the emergence of new, sophisticated forms of agriculture, Areshian said.

"They had to learn and understand the cycles of growth of the plant," he said. "They had to understand how much water was needed, how to prevent fungi from damaging the harvest, and how to deal with flies that live on the grapes.

"The site gives us a new insight into the earliest phase of horticulture—how they grew the first orchards and vineyards," he added.

University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Naomi Miller commented that "from a nutritional and culinary perspective, wine expands the food supply by harnessing the otherwise sour and unpalatable wild grape.

"From a social perspective, for good and ill," Miller said, "alcoholic beverages change the way we interact with each other in society."

****

The ancient-winery study was led by UCLA's Hans Barnard and partially funded by the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)

LEAD IMAGE: An apparent wine press (in front of sign) and fermentation vat (right) emerge during a dig in Armenia. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF GREGORY ARESHIAN


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#9 Yervant1

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Posted 06 October 2018 - 09:16 AM

Community Press
Oct 5 2018
 
 
Bill Zacharkiw: Visiting Armenia, the cradle of wine culture

Armenia may be the birthplace of wine, but everything old is new again: the country is experiencing a long-overdue winemaking renaissance.

 

When I told people I was going to Armenia, most asked why. My response was that it was the birthplace of wine.

The greater region of the Caucasus, the area between the Black and Caspian seas, is the cradle of vitis vinifera, the grape species used in winemaking. According to Vahe Keushguerian, referred to by some as the godfather of modern Armenian wine, genetic markers show that all vinifera is from this region.

In 2007, an archeological site was discovered in Armenia that is known as the Areni-1 winery. It is considered the world’s oldest, dating back to before 4000 BC. While older clay pots have been found in the region, this was a functioning winery with winemaking tools including clay amphoras. Genetic dating of fossilized plant material identified one of the grapes used as areni, present-day Armenia’s most important red grape variety.

While Armenia has existed as a country for only 100 years, Armenians have an immense pride in the role their ancestors played in the early history of wine. Throughout the region’s history, they have grown grapes and made wine, though not without challenges.

According to Frunz Harutyunyan, deputy director of the Vine and Wine Foundation of Armenia, the golden age of Armenian winemaking was 500 BC to AD 500. After the 13th century, things became tougher, as Armenians lived under different, mostly Muslim empires. Winemaking returned in 1828 when the region was taken over by the Russian Empire. “In many ways,” said Harutyunyan, “this saved Armenia’s winemaking.”

Aside from wine, brandy-making developed, as did fortified wines. In 1918, following the Russian Revolution, Armenia became an independent state, though by 1922 it was incorporated into the U.S.S.R. In the planned economies of the Soviet Union, Armenia was designated a brandy producer, while its northern neighbour, Georgia, was to produce the wine.

Over that time, much of Armenia’s 300 or so indigenous grapes were put aside, largely in favour of new grape crossings designed by the Soviets for growing in big quantities, to make wine for distillation. With this came a decline in local wine consumption.

Things did not improve as the Soviet Union crumbled. Armenia declared independence in 1991, but was at war with neighbouring Azerbaijan — a conflict that still rumbles today. The next 10 to 15 years were tough, as the country climbed out of poverty.

So if you have never heard of Armenian wine, it’s because arguably the world’s oldest wine culture is also one of today’s youngest. I spent a week touring the country’s vineyards and drinking in wine bars and restaurants in the capital of Yerevan. Most Armenians I talked with describe the present period as a renaissance for Armenian wine — and, after 700 years, one that is long overdue.

What Armenia has going for it, unlike many new countries, is a wealth of indigenous grape varieties, volcanic and limestone soils, and many high-altitude vineyards, which allow for growing high-quality wine grapes. The country has the potential to carve out even more of a unique niche for itself in the wine world. What are these wines, and what challenges lie ahead? Those are unique as well, and I’ll write about them next week.

You can hear Bill Zacharkiw talk about wine on CHOM-FM (97.7) Fridays at 7:45 a.m.

https://www.communit...2e-a458ba9e101b


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#10 Yervant1

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Posted 14 November 2018 - 11:32 AM

Banks.am, Armenia
Nov 13 2018
 
 
Alexis Ohanian launches Shakmat, new Armenian brandy
 
13.11.2018 | 12:20 Home / News /
 
b8f9dfcf05c73e0229490fd4ec5a0f77.jpg
 
 
Reddit and Initialized Capital co-founder Alexis Ohanian has announced the launch of new brand of Armenian brandy, Shakmat.  
 
According to Ohanian, the first batch will contain 2400 bottles and be sold EUR 100 per bottle. A part of profits will be allocated to Armenia Tree Project, which has planted over 5.5 million trees all over Armenia.
 
“Shakmat 23 Year Old is a premium brandy originating from the birthplace of winemaking. It is an embodiment of Armenia’s two national treasures – Chess and brandy. The time has come for Armenian brandy to reclaim its rightful place on the World Spirits map,” emphasized Ohanian.
 
He visited Armenia with a team to find the right flavors for the new brandy.
 
“Shakmat (or shakhmat) is the Armenian word for chess. But our Shakmat is so much more than a game. It is a symbol; a symbol of life, persistence, patience, and wisdom of a people that do not fall, even when held in check,” concluded Ohanian.
 

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#11 Yervant1

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Posted 12 December 2021 - 11:32 AM

Forbes
Dec 11 2021
 
 
Armenia, A New Wine Country That Is Actually Very Old, Illustrated With Two Wines
 
 
Armenia, A New Wine Country That Is Actually Very Old, Illustrated With Two Wines
 
 

Armenia is a small wine country but definitely not a new one. Here, in the region around present-day Armenia and Georgia, wine was made for the first time around 8000 years ago. At least, that is what archaeological finds tell us. From here, the art of making wine spread south to Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), to Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Cyprus, Greece and the other countries around the Mediterranean and beyond.

Armenian wines have been totally unknown for most of us until very recently. This is mainly because the country was a Soviet republic between 1922 and 1990. Each of the Soviet republics had its own speciality, and for Armenia, it was brandy production. But now the country’s wines are again being appreciated around the world. The volumes are relatively small, and we are not talking about low-priced wines. The producers are focusing on quality wines with character.

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A back-label on a bottle of Armenian wine in the[+]

BKWINE PHOTOGRAPHY

Armenia is sandwiched between Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Iran. The country has only 3 million inhabitants, but there is a large diaspora of Armenians worldwide. The mighty Caucasus Mountains make their mark on the landscape, and many vineyards are located at high altitudes, 3300-5000 feet above sea level. The climate is continental, with hot and dry summers and winters with temperatures that can drop to 5 degrees F and even lower in some regions.

Armenia has four main wine-growing regions. The most famous is Vayots Dzor in the southern part of the country. This is where one of the world’s oldest wineries was discovered, 6000 years old.

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Trinity Eh Areni noir 2017, Aghavnadzor, Vayots[+]

BKWINE PHOTOGRAPHY

We have recently tasted two red Armenian wines from Vayots Dzor, made from the local grape Areni Noir.

Armenia has plenty of local grapes, which the producers now want to bring forward. One of the most cultivated is Areni Noir, a hardy grape that can withstand chilly nights at high altitudes and periods of drought. It has thick skin, some tannins but can feel quite smooth on the palate, with aromas of red fruit and spices. The winemaker’s decisions play a significant role in the character, not least whether the wine is oak-aged or not.

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Old Bridge Reserve 2017, Areni Noir, Arpa Valley,[+]

BKWINE PHOTOGRAPHY

 

Trinity Eh Areni noir 2017, Aghavnadzor, Vayots Dzor, Trinity Canyon Vineyards, Armenia

Bright in colour and light in style with high and refreshing acidity and lovely fruit aromas. I like its easy-drinking, refreshing style. The wine has been aged in oak barrels for 18 months, but the oak is well hidden behind the fruit, which is good. This wine benefits from having the fruit aromas as the centrepiece. Trinity Canyon Vineyards was founded in 2009. (~35 USD)

Old Bridge Reserve 2017, Areni Noir, Arpa Valley, Armenia

A balanced wine with complex and well-developed aromas, quite soft but with a fresh acidity that gives structure. Delicious. The property was founded in 1998 by the Khalatyan family. The old bridge is close to the estate, and Marco Polo crossed it in the 13th century. (~35 USD)

History, whether it was 8000 years ago or just 800, is always present in Armenia.

Try these two wines, or any others you can find from Armenia, to discover a new wine country.



#12 Yervant1

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Posted 12 June 2022 - 07:26 AM

pngIu4K8WoZLO.png
June 8 2022
 
 
Forget France: Armenia is the hub of winemaking history
 
 
 
By Jonny Walfisz  with AP  •  Updated: 08/06/2022 - 10:39
 

A new museum is delving into the history books of Armenia’s rich wine culture.

When you think of wine, there are always a few classic nations that spring to mind. Maybe it’s the lush valleys of France, the sumptuous vineyards of Italy, or a newer location like California or New Zealand.

But you’d be missing out on one of the oldest wine-making regions of the lot. With a history stretching back over 8,000 years, Armenia has wine-cred by the bottle-load.

 
 
 

Some of the earliest evidence for today’s winemaking industry has been found from pieces of broken pottery that were discovered in the South Caucasus region, where neighbouring country Georgia now is.

A new Armenian wine museum is jumping headfirst into wine’s long history, and showing its deep connection to the religion and culture of the region.

Just 30 kilometres from Armenian capital Yerevan is the heart of the country’s winemaking territory. The museum here is built deep into the surrounding basalt rock and as you go underground, you feel as if you’re entering a giant wine cellar.

There you can find fragments of a myth revolving around the tipple.

Ancient wine history

Around 800 BC, King Menua, the fifth king of the ancient Urartu region supposedly gifted vineyards to a woman he was besotted with named Tariri.

The ancient myth can be seen on a stone inscription in the museum.

"We passed through a mysterious tunnel and ended up in the 9th century BC in the Urartian Chamber," says chief specialist Narine Melikyan.

"From here, you see how our King Menua gives vineyards, which he himself planted by an artificial canal, which he himself built, and now he gives these vineyards to this mysterious, beautiful woman, whose name is Tariri."

A wine cask to die for

Other ancient exhibits show how wine would accompany Armenians from cradle to grave.

A wine jug dated back to the 1st century BC was discovered by archaeologists to have the remains of a woman in it.

Upon further research, the jug - called a karas - was found to be an integral part of an ancient Armenian’s lifetime.

"When a person was born, there was a karas intended for him, during his lifetime, it was used to age wine. And after death, a person was buried in the karas, in the foetal position."

Wine has long held connections with religion. Jesus’s first miracle after all, was converting water to wine, and the museum has centuries-old Armenian bibles to demonstrate that.

The museum also holds phallic-shaped stones, which were idols in ancient times. During rituals, ancient Armenians poured wine over the idols as a sacrifice to higher powers. 

In 2011, a 6,000-year-old Copper Age wine factory was discovered in southern Armenia. And the 8,000-year-old broken bits of pottery found to the north in Georgia are thought to be the earliest known evidence for the origins of today’s winemaking industry.

 
Watch the video at the link below


#13 MosJan

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Posted 21 March 2023 - 03:29 PM



#14 MosJan

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Posted 21 March 2023 - 03:30 PM



#15 Yervant1

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Posted 13 January 2024 - 09:06 AM

Wine Enthusiast
Jan 11 2024
 
 
9 Grapes to Help You Understand Armenian Wine
 

Trace through centuries of wine history and almost every trail will lead back to Armenia. As the Book of Genesis describes, the country—nestled between Iran to the south, Turkey to the west and Azerbaijan to the East—was home to the world’s first grapevines. When Noah’s Ark ran aground on Mount Ararat, he planted rows of vines (and got quite drunk off the first harvest). Students of history know that the snow-capped peak, despite its present-day location within the borders of neighboring Turkey, is an iconic symbol of Armenia.

You can label the Noah’s Ark story as legend or lore depending on your beliefs, but in 2007, the world’s oldest-known winery was uncovered in Areni, a town just 60 miles from Mount Ararat. Nestled deep in a cave perched up a rocky outcrop, researchers found a 6,000-year-old grape press and fermentation vats buried in the floor. It’s thought that wine played a significant role in the era’s human sacrifices and other religious ceremonies.

Winemaking continued in the country for thousands of years until practices wilted under Soviet rule. “Georgia was tasked with wine production and we got brandy,” says Mariam Saghatelyan, owner of InVino wine bar in Yerevan. Grape varieties better suited to spirits production were introduced and still-wine production fell dormant.

 

You May Also Like: Three Wineries Ushering In a New Era of Armenian Winemaking

 

Over the last twenty years, however, producers have re-emerged, reclaiming family land and planting indigenous grapes like Tozot, Voskehat and Khatoun.

When Paul Hobbs started his Yacoubian-Hobbs project with the Yacoubian brothers in Armenia two decades ago, “the wine industry was in rough shape,” he says. “A lot of expertise was lost and Soviet-era facilities were rusted and run down.”

So he tried planting American grapes to match his California background. “I looked to classic Western varieties: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir—a total disaster,” he says. “We wanted to understand how these vines would behave in the Old World. It’s been very revealing—most of the varieties we brought ripened earlier and jumped up in sugar. They didn’t work here. Meanwhile, the indigenous varieties ripen late and never get out of control.” Now he relies on Armenian grapes—hyper-aromatic examples like Voskehat or intense reds like Areni Noir, just two of the offerings that make up Armenia’s 400 autochthonous grape varieties.

To really understand Armenian wine, these indigenous varieties are the place to start.

White Grapes Voskehat

Known as the queen of Armenian grape varieties, Voskehat has been cultivated for over 3,000 years, most commonly in the cooler, forested province of Aragatsotn and higher altitude sites in Vayots Dzor.

Voskehat is known for its longevity and ability to withstand increasingly unpredictable climates, thanks to its thick skin and hardy vines. (It’s not uncommon to find 150-year-old plantings of Voskehat.) Because of these traits, wineries are starting to look to this grape as the future of the region amidst warming conditions.

 

You May Also Like: In Armenia, Making Orange Wine is Personal

 

Voskehat is also malleable to style preferences. Depending on the growing season or winemaking treatment, the grape can be formed to bring out vegetal and key lime flavors or richer tropical notes of white flower and beeswax.

“I appreciate Voskehat because of its similarity to Chenin Blanc,” says Danya Degen, wine director at Meli in Washington, D.C. “Both grapes blend floral flavors with moderate acidity and fuller body. Like Chenin Blanc, acidity and body also make it a fabulous blending variety for sparkling wine. Armenia makes some of the best non-Champagne, non-Prosecco bubbles from Voskehat.”

Khatoun

Scott Stroemer, beverage director of Galit in Chicago, describes Khatoun (also known as Khatun, Khatouni or Khatun Kharji) as “a total acid freak.” With a yellow-green hue and near-colorless juice, Khatoun is known for its tart lemon, alpine flower and pineapple characteristics. “It’s great as a blending grape for Voskehat, which can be a bit flabby on its own,” he says.

Kangun

Kangun (or Gangun, depending on who you ask) was born during Soviet rule and specifically created for brandy production. It’s the child of three grape varieties: First, it was crossed with the Ukrainian grape Sukholimansky Bely and the Georgian grape Rkatsiteli, then that offspring was later crossed with Chardonnay. It settled well in Armenian terroir and was adopted for not just brandy, but white and sparkling wines. Expect a light straw color, ample freshness and notes of honey, wildflower and quince.

Garan Dmak

The white grape variety—found most commonly in the Ararat region—is planted widely in the clay and higher desert soils of Armenia. It’s known for its vegetal and ripe pear characteristics, though Stroemer compares it to something more French in nature. “I want this to be the Sancerre of 2024,” he says.

Red Grapes Areni Noir

“Areni Noir, often known as Sev Areni or Sev Malahi, is considered the pearl of Armenian grape varieties,” says Bertil Jean-Chronberg, the owner and operator of Bonde Fine Wine Shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “It grows in the Vayots Dzor region—distinguished by a unique climate of mild winters and sunny days—at an average altitude of 3,000 to 5,900 feet. This terroir reflects the peculiar characteristics of this grape variety: In its youth, it produces wines with a pronounced acidity and a deep and intense color with delicate aromas of cherry, blackcurrant and black pepper. Aged in Armenian oak barrels, it becomes finer and more velvety and gains aromatic complexity and roundness.”

 

You May Also Like: A Guide to Armenia, One of the World’s Oldest Wine Regions

 

Areni Noir is “thin-skinned with bright acid,” adds Stroemer. “When grown in Vayots Dzor, Areni Noir becomes more Burgundian in presence with a black pepper finish.”

Tigrani

While Tigrani is Armenian in origin, part of its parentage comes from Georgia, the Caucasus’s other historic wine region. The grape is a cross between Saperavi, one of Georgia’s ancient grapes, and Areni Noir.

It’s seldom seen on its own. Instead, Tigrani lends fruit and florality to more tannic red varieties. The grapes are juicy, sweet and tart with deep natural color, a subtle spice and touches of ripe pomegranate.

Haghtanak

Translating to “victory” in Armenian, Haghtanak’s deep purple berries and intense red juice have made the grape one of Armenia’s most beloved varieties. It’s often found in blends—the deep color adds oomph to lighter grapes like Tozot—though if you do find a single varietal wine, it’s deeply cherry-like, hyper tannic with additional notes of plum, cloves, coffee and vanilla. “I find it quite similar to Saperavi from Georgia,” says Stroemer. “It’s red-fleshed and super tannic.”

Kakhet

Kakhet has deep roots that date back to the 4th century, but for the last few centuries, the grape has been exclusively reserved for Port-style sweet wines. Producers are wising up to the grape’s potential: While Haghtanak and Areni are rich and tannic, Kakhet tends to be berry-forward and terroir-driven—it’s light and aromatic, with notes of blackberry, black currant, fig and black pepper. Experts at U.C. Davis reckon the grape is a relative of the French varietal Carbonneau.

Tozot

“I see a lot of potential in this grape,” says Pavel Vardanyan, who makes a Tozot at Noa Wine in Vayots Dzor, located at the tippy-top of one of the region’s rolling mountains. “You can make Tozot elegant and ageable, you can make it into a rosé, you can make it into a blanc de noir,” he explains.

While Tozot isn’t found widely (and often only in older vineyards), the red grape offers up high acidity and freshness, with vibrant, bright strawberry notes not dissimilar to something from, say, Beaujolais.

Because of its rarity, “these days, it’s often blended into a still wine, used in table wine, dessert wine or distilled into Armenian brandy,” says Jean-Chronberg. “If vinified alone, it produces wines of great freshness, which are unique and invigorating.”

Published: January 11, 2024

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