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  • Wineries in Armenia slowly modernizing

    Prague Post, Czech Rep
    Aug 2 2014

    Wineries in Armenia slowly modernizing

    by John & Helena Baker


    Oldest winery ever discovered sits in the footsteps of Noah

    Mount Ararat -- where according to the Bible, Noah's Ark came ashore --
    majestically overlooks Armenia's capital, Yerevan. This peak is an
    essential element in the nation's sense of identity, especially since
    a great majority of Armenians have long lived in a diaspora spread
    across the globe.



    Today, however, Mount Ararat is not even in Armenia. It stands a
    little over 30 km across the border with Turkey, a country with which
    Armenia has no diplomatic relations, in the main due to the genocide
    of 1915.

    Armenia is a small and ancient nation (population 3.2 million
    inhabitants, with another 8 million living abroad), located at the
    southern end of the Transcaucasian region that bridges Europe and
    Asia, bordered by Russia, Georgia, Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan and the
    Caspian Sea. The region has for ever been a meeting point for a mix of
    cultures, which is reflected in Armenia's long and often troubled
    history. Interestingly, it was the first country to adopt
    Christianity as its official religion.

    As is the case with Georgia (usually reckoned to be the seat of
    viticulture), Armenia's mountains and plains bear evidence of
    mankind's first winemaking endeavors. Vines are indigenous and
    excavations have revealed that vines of the genus Vitis vinifera
    silvestris (ancestor to the today's wine grapes) have been growing
    here for over a million years.

    The 6,100-year-old winery that was discovered in 2007 in a cave in the
    village of Areni in the southwestern Vayots Dzor province is the
    world's oldest, dated at least a thousand years before the one
    unearthed in the Jordanian West Bank in 1963.

    This winery has a press, fermentation vats, storage jars, while
    pottery shards, grape seeds and pressed grape remains were also
    present on the scene, and a leather shoe was found in the same cave
    the following year.

    Areni is also the name of the noble grape variety, whose wines
    received their first written mention in the 5th century. The Areni is
    perhaps the most interesting of all the myriad local grapes, giving at
    best some fresh, delicate almost Burgundian reds in the Yeghegnadzor
    region southeast of Yerevan.

    Despite lying between the Black Sea (an inland sea) and the Caspian
    Sea (variously classed as the world's largest lake or also a sea), the
    climate in most Armenian vineyard areas is very dry and decidedly
    continental, with vast deserts to the south and extensive plains to
    the north. Vines grow mostly between 500 meters and 1500 meters where
    diurnal temperature swings can be extreme.

    Winters are also harsh enough to warrant protection as the threat of
    frosts both in spring and autumn is very real. Despite these and many
    other difficulties the arrival of decent irrigation methods has made
    viticulture a more practical undertaking in today's Armenia, allowing
    it to rise in commercial importance.

    There are 13,000 hectares under vine though the majority of these
    supply raw material for the far more illustrious Armenian brandy. Much
    investment nowadays comes from Armenians abroad and wineries are
    modernizing slowly from the old Soviet-style wine factories that
    traditionally still supply the huge but largely unsophisticated
    Russian market.



    Winery of the month: Vinaøství ©abata

    Vladimír ©abata, not long out of the Lednice wine school, set about
    making his first wine in his back garden in Bøeclav. Later his family
    moved to a property in Rakvice that had a minute 10 ares of vineyard
    attached. Here he made wine with friends and in 1997 he went as far
    as bottling his first solo batch. This only awakened the desire to go
    professional. Subsequently he found and purchased a small property in
    the not-too-distant hilltop village of Zajeèí where he based his small
    production. In 2004 he was joined by his eldest son, Václav.

    With boom times sweeping Moravia, ©abata decided on a new expanded
    project, building a modern winery on a virgin site outside the
    village. By 2009 this allowed for an annual production 30,000
    bottles. With youngest son Jan now on board, ©abata and his old
    colleague and investor Ivan Bene¹, founded the company Vinaøství
    ©abata s.r.o. in 2011.

    Vinaøství ©abata has dedicated itself not just to making better wine
    but to the growing trend of eno-tourism, running tastings for groups,
    with lodging also available at the newly-completed 12-room Penzion and
    Restaurant U vinaøství within the complex.

    ©abata has always stuck close to nature with all grapes sourced
    locally, and the company speciality is the red and rosé made from
    "samotok", the free-run (unpressed) wine made fresh and ready for sale
    every year on Nov. 11, as with traditional Saint Martin's new wine.
    Another house speciality is the Sur-Lie cuvée, a special blend which
    spends a minimum of nine months on its lees.

    Wines come from 15 grape varieties and cost between 105 to 155 Kè.
    See also: Vinarstvisabata.cz

    Wines of the Month:

    White: Ryzlink vla¹ský 2013

    Producer: Vinaøství Vladimír ©abata, Zajeèí, Moravia

    This is a Welschriesling made from grapes that grew on the Pøítluky
    slopes near Zajeèí. The wine has a pale straw appearance with
    distinct goldeny tinges on the rim. The nose is elegant, floral, very
    fresh with a good dab of butterscotch well to the fore. The bone-dry
    palate is very pleasing, green apples delicately flushed out with a
    predominant mineral character. Refreshing and light - just 11%
    alcohol. (125 Kè)

    Red: Areni Nairian 2008

    Producer: Areni, Armenia

    This wine has a beautiful deep red aspect, it is dry, made in the
    famous Armenian wine village of Areni in the Vayots Dzor region. On
    the nose one can sense tobacco, juniper and forest berries, mingled
    with mountain herbs. The wine is well-knit in the mouth, with a full
    texture and highlights of delicate raspberry accompanied by pleasing
    vegetal and spicy tones. This is a modern-style Areni: clean,
    transparent and smooth, with good acidity. Matured at least two years
    in oak barrels from the Caucasus itself. (259 Kè)

    http://new.praguepost.com/food-and-drink/40633-wineries-in-armenia-slowly-modernizing

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