With several thousands years of time distance it’s difficult to say where exactly during neolithic era mankind has produced the first wine out of domesticated grapevines. Ampelographs, however, are pretty sure: It must have been somewhere in this „Golden Triangle“ between nowadays Georgia, Armenia and Eastern Anatolia.
Despite biblical references to winemaking starting on the slopes of Mount Ararat, now in Turkey but visible from Armenia, scientists currently consider a cave about 100 km away as the birthplace of viticulture. In 2007, near Areni, archaeologists discovered the world's oldest winery, dating back 6,100 years. This cave has since become the most significant tourist attraction in Armenia.
Sev Areni, also the name of the country's most important red grape variety, has spread from its homeland Vayots Dzor to the regions of Ararat, Armavir, Aragatsotn, and Tavush.Of the 350 local grape varieties, 31 are used for wine production, including reds like Haghtanak, Milagh, Khndoghni, Karmrahyut, and whites like Voskehat, Lalvari, Kangoun, and Khatoun Kharji. These varieties share a unique typicity, distinct from mainstream tastes.
All the varieties mentioned, apart from having names that are nearly unpronounceable for those who speak European languages, are connected by a unique typicity that is far from the mainstream. Moreover, in the mountainous regions of Armenia, Cabernet and similar varieties are just as unknown as the grape harvester. Everything there is done by hand.
Of course, these wines, often made from vines over 100 years old that are planted on their own rootstocks, cannot be cheap supermarket offerings. Notably, expatriate Armenians like Vahe Keushguerian (WineWorks), Varuzhan Mouradian (Van Ardi Wines), Grigori Avetissyan (Kataro), Armenak Aslanian (Golden Grape), and Argentina-raised Eduardo Eurnekian (Karas Wines) have heavily invested in modern cellar technology, spending nearly €100m between 2016 and 2022.
International consultants like Michel Rolland assist in the renaissance of Armenian wine. Zara Mouradian, director of the Vine and Wine Foundation of Armenia, reports a 50% export growth in 2022 and numerous awards for Armenia's handcrafted wines.
In just a few years, the count of wine producers has grown from 25 to 160, domestic wine consumption has seen a two-fold increase, and Yerevan now features wine bars that rival the sophistication of those found in Berlin or Barcelona. Armenia's total vineyard area is now about 15,000 hectares (approx. 37,000 acres).
However, the uncertain political situation looms large. Fears persist that Azerbaijan's heavily armed army, funded by petrodollars, after occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and pushing out more than 100,000 ethnical Armenians, might covet more land, possibly creating a corridor through Armenian territory to its exclave Nakhchivan in the west. In their homeland Arzach, as Armenians call the region, they have left their houses, hundreds of churches and monasteries, huge oak forests as basis for barrel manufacturing – and 15 wineries with a total production of four million litres. A bitter loss. "All we Armenians need for a good future is political stability," says Aram Babayan, team leader at the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) in Yerevan, which supports the Armenian wine sector – "we'll manage the rest!"
A big part of the country, located in the south of the Caucasus, offers magnificent volcanic landscapes but has sparse vegetation. Most vineyards need irrigation, as do orchards with pomegranates, peaches, cherries, plums, pears, and apricots (whose Latin name is "Prunus armeniaca"). In the Soviet era, unlike their neighbors in Georgia, Armenians were assigned to Brandy production, as their vineyards are mostly above 1,000 meters in altitude.
In times of climate change, this once perceived disadvantage has turned into a benefit. Up to 1,800 meters in the remote mountain village of Khachik in the Vayots Dzor region, vineyards produce grapes for Vahe Keushguerian’s Brut Nature Rosé – within gunshot range of the Azerbaijani border. Hence, depending on the political situation, grape harvests sometimes occur in bulletproof vests.
Armenians have settled in the southern Caucasus for 2,200 years, but their history is marked by wars and the hegemonic ambitions of often stronger powers. Romans, Parthians, Sassanids, Byzantines, Seljuks, Persians, Ottomans, and Russians contested this land in Eastern Anatolia. The tragic climax was the Turkish genocide against the Armenians with over a million deaths during the First World War in 1915/16. In the late Soviet era, the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh reignited. About three million people live in Armenia, with another seven million scattered across the globe. Armenia is the world's oldest Christian nation in the world.
Online purchase of many of them is possible via the Berlin wine hub: www.winesofarmenia.store
