Armenian wine: A 6,000-year-old tradition becoming a major player from a small mountain village

(This is the second of a three-part series on Armenia.)

ARENI, Armenia – The village of Areni’s main drag isn’t very long. Glance at your cell phone on the two-lane road and you might miss the huge plastic tubs of homemade wine on roadside stands, or the giant jars of sliced peppers looking like a string of yellow street lights. You may not notice two big wineries, oddly, standing side by side.

You will likely be mesmerized by the long string of brown craggy Zangezur Mountains stretching to the horizon in this southern region of Armenia. Sprawling, empty spaces accompanied my marshrutka van as we headed south two hours from the capital of Yerevan.

The hills looked barren. The town looked dead. 

But this little village of 1,770 people, hard on the closed border with hated Azerbaijan, is the epicenter of Armenia’s exploding wine scene. It is also the cradle of the world’s favorite beverage, boasting of a working winery from 6,100 years ago.

I first discovered Armenian wine in 2008 when I visited Glendale, Calif., in my former life as a traveling food writer. Glendale has the highest Armenian population outside Armenia and the wines that accompanied my grilled meats stuck with me for years.

The view from my Areni B&B, however, made me wonder if I was in the middle of Armenia’s wine scene or the middle of nowhere.

The narrow, dirt road led down to the brown mountain range. The setting sun illuminated it into a maroon shade. I couldn’t see a tree, let alone a grapevine. They grow grapes here? How does anything grow here? I looked around for a cactus.

Tuscany this was not.

But as it turns out, this little speck on the international wine map punches way above its grapevines. Some of its wines made me swoon, almost as much as the atmosphere. In late November, it had very few visitors and I could talk to the wine officials while drinking inexpensive wine without waiting in line.

Actually, Areni (pronounced ah-ren-EE) has already been discovered. Hin Areni Winery, one of three major wineries in town, had more than 100,000 visitors in 2023. They expect to almost meet that in 2025. They average between 60,000-80,000. 

That’s a lot of thirsty customers for a town of 1,770.

“The popularity is growing,” said Hin manager Gor Sutiasyan. “New wineries are coming out. New wines are coming out. The tourist economy is working.”

Areni is to wine what Belfast is to beer. Locals tell me that 99 percent of the population make their own wine. My B&B, in fact, is called Areni Wine Cellar B&B. I wondered if they fed their wine to the 10 stray kittens who played on the stairs and slept on windowsills and seemed as happy as I was after two days in this wine-soaked village.

Armenian wine history

Yes, they have made wine in Armenia for more than 6,000 years but it wasn’t until recently when it took off commercially. It spent 70 years as a republic under the Soviet yoke and the USSR’s leaders, not one a teetotaler, gave Armenia strict instructions.

The Republic of Georgia, just to the north, is our wine supplier. You stick to your cognac.

Armenia’s cognac is legendary but wine has grown ever since independence in 1991. All through Soviet rule, Armenians made wine just for themselves. Independence came around at a time when world wine technology improved and the Armenians hopped on for the ride.

Areni’s Vayots Dzor region produces about 500 grapes but two provide the biggest sources: the red Areni of which the town is named after, and the white Voskehat, both of which turned me into a fan.

Today, Areni has three major wineries. I gladly visited them all:

The wineries

Hin Areni, 374-11-521-111, https://hinareniwine.am, info@hinareniwine.am, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday.

Founded in 2013, Hin’s tasting room is big and airy and more functional than colorful. The winery modernized in 2023 and today is the leading winery in the area. It produces 1 million bottles a year and exports to Russia, Belgium, France and Czechia among others. It has four distributors in the U.S. and others in Greece and China.

I sat down and they immediately brought out three glasses of different wines. I tried a rosè, an Arena Noir that was much stronger at 14.8 percent alcohol and a Voskehat. The Areni classical wines were too light for me but any Areni Reserve I tried was superb: rich, smooth and full-bodied with too many berries on my tongue to count.

I upgraded to the Voskehat 2019 and it was one of the best wines I had in Armenia. In fact, it was so good, later I got on the floor of the Yerevan Airport’s duty free shop and dug into my notes to find the vintage for purchase.

Still, looking up at those brown, barren mountains, where do they grow the grapes? I couldn’t see any romantic, soothing waves of grapevines anywhere. It was a mystery akin to surf shops with no ocean.

Actually, all the wineries have vineyards three or four kilometers up the hill at 1,250 meters (4,100 feet).

“This is one of the hottest places in Armenia,” Sutiasyan said. “We had a record 43 degrees (109 Fahrenheit) in July.  Forty to forty-one is normal.”

Hin has worked with French oncologists to perfect their wine and they continue to be daring. They’re experimenting with an orange wine that will come out soon.

“We use the white grape,” Sutiasyan said. “It’s the same process as the red. I tried it a bit and trust me. It’s going to be a great boom.”

Areni Wine Factory, 374-94-424-402, areniwines@gmail.com, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.

Right next door to Hin, Areni Wine Factory looks more like a museum and gift shop than a winery. The small room has a desk surrounded by souvenirs and knicknacks. Behind the tasting desk are two huge round wine racks. Upstairs is a restaurant with an informative film about winemaking in Areni.

This winery produces 280,000 bottles a year. They also work with a French winemaker to make 100,000 bottles of different wines using Armenian grapes but with new technology.

Armine Gharakhanyan, the knowledgable server with excellent English, explained a major secret to Armenian wine is the soil. It’s volcanic. Armenia sits atop a teutonic plate. Yes, the country has suffered countless earthquakes over the centuries but if you survive, you can celebrate with a terrific glass of wine.

The natural soil, like many places in Italy, also reduces the chance of headaches the next morning.

I tried a 2019 Voskehat Reserve that was superb. I also had one of their wines with a French twist, a Domaine Simonyan Areni Noir, a semi-dry wine that’s one of their leading exporters.. 

It was good but I couldn’t decide which Voskehat I liked better between the two wineries. I asked Gharakhanyan if the two neighboring wineries are friendly.

“Not too much,” she said with a smile. “We are friendly; they are not friendly. That winery, the owner comes from Yerevan and other places. If they were from this village, a lot would be OK.”

Areni Wine Winery, 374-98-942-488, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.

Not to be confused with the Areni Wine Factory (the word “Areni” here is a marketing must), it’s located off the main road and down in the heart of the village. I could tell the junction because there’s a giant wine barrel in the middle of the road.

I entered an empty room and the owner had to come inside from his chores out back to serve me. Neither he nor his assistant spoke English but it didn’t matter. I loved settling into one of the wooden chairs in front of the beautiful wallpaper that looked like tree bark.

He gave me a plate of yummy cheese chunks and sweet, sundried tomatoes. I tried three or four of his Areni wines, and he gave me huge pours, not the simple tastes so many others offered.

The wines were passable but nothing special. I spent most of the night chatting with Elena and Paulo, an Italian couple from my old Rome neighborhood Testaccio, who came in after me. 

We talked about Armenia, Armenian wines and the new wine bars that have popped up in my old ‘hood. Nothing improves a neighborhood more than a good wine bar, which was what brought me back to the lively, bustling capital of Yerevan.

Gini Pig

Yerevan’s Saryan Street is lined with wine bars but I didn’t need to make the 20-minute walk from my hotel. I could just go to the next street over to the most unpretentious wine bar I’ve ever visited.

Gini Pig is a small bar with drink crates as furniture and a kitchen that produces such good pizza, the staff at the Italian Embassy are regular customers.

Owner Dareh Kooumchian is an Armenian raised in Australia who chafed at the latest wave of snooty Australian wine connoisseurs. He had lived in Yerevan off and on for 10 years and when he moved permanently to the capital in 2021, he opened Gini Pig. (Gini means “wine” in Armenian).

With wine consumption also growing in Armenia, Kooumchian wanted to start a new atmosphere.

“I wanted to set up a wine bar where it’s not snobby,” said Kooumchian, wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-shirt. “We’re anti-snobby. What I wanted to do was get everybody drinking wine because to me, growing up, I thought wine was too snobby for me. I was just doing vodka cranberries.”

Gini Pig boasts 60-70 wines and every one is Armenian. I tried his red wine from Monte Noah Estate from the Armavir region in western Armenia and a Krya red. Both were quite good and inexpensive, perfect for his excellent margherita pizza.

Kooumchian speaks with an Australian accent but is fiercely Armenian. He would rather sell his own blood than foreign wine.

“I get a little tired when visitors come, like Europeans, and they walk in here and I’ll explain to them that this is an Armenian-only wine bar and we only do Armenian wines,” he said. “They’re like, ‘Oh, can I have something like a Shiraz?’ It happens all the time. ‘Do you have anything like a Malbec?’

“When we were making wine, these people didn’t even exist.”

Areni-1 Cave

Proof is about a 20-minute walk from my B&B, down the main road heading south out of town. Following the Arpa River, I came across a big craggy mountain with a couple of small structures at the foot.

In 2007, archaeologists dug into the mountain and discovered a cave, called Areni-1, that goes hundreds of meters deep. What they found were swallows, 12 species of bats and lots of guano.

But they also found a perfectly intact leather shoe, filled with grass and straw to preserve the shape. Using scientific dating methods, they determined the size 37 shoe was 5,500 years old. However, they discovered something even older.

A winery.

My guide, Hasmik Antonyan, led me through the dark tunnels carved out of the rock. Lights provided enough sight to prevent any claustrophobia or banged heads. After about 50 meters, we came across a large clearing. In the dirt were deep bowls of various sizes.They were all clay pots for storing wine.

Crisscrossing string formed a grid for classification. This is where they determined was the world’s first winery. It served wine made from the same Areni grape in 4000 B.C.

“Here we found a wine press,” she said, pointing to one of the roped areas. “They were pressing the grapes, smashing the grapes, then the juice flowed into the pots. But at the time it wasn’t wine for every day drinking or trading like nowadays. At that time it was wine only for ritual ceremonies.”

The people then worshiped pre-pagan gods and, like today, she said, people associated wine with blood.

“Even 6,000 years ago,” she said, “people were thinking that by drinking wine they could be connected with their gods.”

Excavations continue today. Only 4-5 percent has been excavated. 

When we left I was not surprisingly in the mood for wine. I stopped into the cave’s wine shop called Arpaparnas and had wines from all over Armenia’s wine country. I chatted with the nice clerk and raised a toast to Armenian wine which, like the people, has survived for all of us to enjoy.

If you’re thinking of going …

How to get there: Marshrutkas, Armenia’s version of vans, leave frequently from Kilikia, Yerevan’s central bus station. The two-hour trip is about €4.50.

Where to stay: Areni Wine Cellar B&B, Areni 28 Street House 18, 374-94-708-731. Just a couple blocks off the main road as you enter town, the owners are a winemaking couple who offer a big room with a great shower and excellent breakfast. I paid €54 for two nights.

Where to eat: Arpeni Tavern, 374-93-508-900, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Located across the street from Hin Areni and Areni Wine Factory, it has a great balcony with a view of the woods and the mountains between the trees. Mains start at about €5. Soups at €2. Try the khashiama, Armenia’s classic slow-cookied meat stew.

When to go: As I advise all travelers, avoid the world in July and August, even a non-major tourist destination such as Armenia. In those months, Yerevan is in the mid-90s and Areni is well over 100. Armenia is famous for its spring wildflowers. That’s ideal with highs in the 70s. During our stay in November, it was in the 40s and 50s and sunny. No rain.

For more information: Areni Visitors Information Center, 374-95-055-057, https://www.facebook.com/AreniVIC. 

(Coming Friday: Hiking in Armenia.)