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Armenia’s wine took a back seat to its brandy for most of the 20th century. Under Soviet rule, vineyards were redirected into industrial cognac production, creating a spirit so celebrated that, according to the International Churchill Society, “the prime minister developed a taste for the ArArAt brandy when it was served by Stalin at the Yalta conference in February 1945. After the Second World War, the Soviet leader arranged for Churchill to be sent 400 bottles every year.” The reputation stuck. Armenia was brandy country.
Along the Arpa River in Armenia’s Vayots Dzor province, it takes almost 100 stone steps to get to the opening of the Areni-1 Cave complex, a cool, echoing cavern perched on an old caravan route. In 2007, a UCLA-led team uncovered a shallow clay press draining into a fermentation vat, storage jars half-buried for temperature control, a cup and bowl and piles of grape skins, stems and seeds that tie the scene to wine. It is the earliest complete winemaking setup ever found.
Scientific testing places the discovery at around 4100 to 4000 B.C. “For the first time, we have a complete archaeological picture of wine production dating back 6,100 years,” said Gregory Areshian, co-director of the excavation and assistant director of UCLA’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, in an interview with National Geographic.
“People obviously were stomping the grapes with their feet, just the way it was done all over the Mediterranean and the way it was originally done in California.”
