High-profile winemakers aren’t the only ones who’ve discovered the country’s wines—here’s what to try .
Nestled in the Caucasus Mountains and surrounded by neighbors Georgia, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan, Armenia is considered the cradle of wine—where wine production, as we know it, was born. The country is home to the oldest winery discovered, thought to be over 6,100 years old. Although there is a long tradition of winemaking in Armenia, throughout much of the 20th century, when the country was part of the Soviet Union, its wine industry moved toward mass distillation. The vast bulk of Armenia’s 17,000 hectares of vineyards are still used for brandy; wine production accounts for only about 6 million liters—in comparison, the U.S. produces around 3 billion liters. Since Armenian independence in 1991, however, and with the return of the Armenian diaspora, the wine industry is being revived, and the improvements in quality over the last decade have been making Armenia a rising star in the Caucasus.
“Armenian wine [is part of] a trend within the wine industry where wines from the oldest wine-producing countries in the world are being reimagined and rediscovered as sommeliers and consumers look for something different,” says Vanessa Goldenson, the president of Kimberly Jones Selections, a fine-wine broker in Los Angeles. “When the owner of my company told me we would soon be selling Armenian wines in California, I thought she was joking. — We sold over 200 cases within three months.”
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