The place#
Vayots Dzor is the valley of the Arpa river, south of Yerevan on the highway to Goris, and it is the one region of Armenia I would not leave out of any tour. The province names the country’s best-known wine region; the village of Areni names the grape. Roughly 1,200 hectares of vines grow here between 1,000 and 1,800 metres, among the highest vineyards in the northern hemisphere.
The valley is narrow and the villages hang off the road. Areni sits at the junction where the Amaghu canyon turns off toward Noravank. Rind is on the slopes above the Arpa to the north. Aghavnadzor is a little further on, before Yeghegnadzor, the provincial capital, with Arpi just below the town. Khachik is a high, remote village to the south-west.
Two things outside the cellars matter here. The Areni-1 cave, a short walk from the road, held a clay treading basin draining into a buried fermentation jar, with grape seeds and pressed skins around it. Excavations from 2007 to 2010 dated it to about 4100 BC, the oldest known complete wine-making installation anywhere. Eight kilometres up the canyon, Noravank monastery stands under red cliffs, founded in 1205, its two-storey Surb Astvatsatsin church finished in 1339 by the architect Momik. I know no other wine region where the archaeology, the church and the vines sit within twenty minutes of each other.
Terroir: altitude, stone and a dry sky#
Altitude does most of the work. Areni and its lower vineyards lie at about 1,000 to 1,100 metres, Aghavnadzor around 1,300, Rind between 1,400 and 1,600, and the vineyards above Khachik reach 1,750. Summer days are hot and dry, the nights at that height are cold, and the swing between the two keeps Areni Noir’s acidity intact while the sugars climb.
The soils change from one bend of the road to the next: limestone and calcareous clay, volcanic tuff and basalt, iron-rich red soils that colour whole hillsides, and sandy-clay alluvium along the Arpa itself. Rainfall is low, roughly 250 to 400 millimetres a year. Winters are cold, spring frost is a real risk at the higher sites, and harvest runs from late September into mid October, about a month behind the Ararat plain.
The high sites are widely described as free of phylloxera, and many old vines here stand on their own roots. I do not put a number on it, but growers will point at a vine and name the great-grandfather who planted it.
Areni Noir, Voskehat and the local rarities#
Areni Noir, Areni Sev locally, is the flagship and the reason most people come. Thin-skinned and mid-ruby, it shows red and sour cherry, white pepper and a fresh line of acidity over fine, moderate tannin, usually at 12.5 to 14 percent, and it ripens late. Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo are the usual comparisons, useful up to a point. I go into the variety in my Areni Noir article.
Fresh, unoaked Areni from steel shows the cherry and pepper most clearly. Karas-fermented or karas-aged Areni, from clay vessels buried in the cellar floor, gains a rounder texture and an earthy edge; I explain the vessel in qvevri, karas and amphora. Oak “Reserve” bottlings add structure and spice. And there is homemade wine in plastic bottles at the roadside stalls in Areni, which is its own education.
Voskehat, the “golden berry”, is native to Aragatsotn but grows well here, giving textured whites of quince, yellow apple and dried herbs, still, karas-aged or with a few days on skins. Khatouni is the valley’s own white and the base of Keush’s sparkling. Tozot, a red, and Chilar, a white, are the valley’s rarities; Zorah bottles Chilar under its Heritage label.
Producers to know#
Zorah Wines in Rind is the estate I am asked about most often. Zorik Gharibian came from the Armenian diaspora in Italy and planted from old-vine Areni cuttings; the first vintage was 2010, with Alberto Antonini consulting. About 15 hectares of Areni Noir, Voskehat, Garan Dmak and Chilar, native yeasts, fermentation in concrete and large casks, ageing in old village karas buried in the floor. Karasì is the Areni to start with; Yeraz, from ancient own-rooted vines at about 1,650 metres, is the one to ask about.
Trinity Canyon Vineyards in Aghavnadzor was founded in 2009 by Hovakim Saghatelyan, Artem Parseghyan and their partners, and farms organically. The “6100” line, named for the age of the Areni-1 winery, is the entry point; “Ancestors” is fermented and aged in karas. A few hundred metres away, Yacoubian-Hobbs (since 2008, with the Californian winemaker Paul Hobbs) makes polished, modern Areni and Voskehat from a vineyard at about 1,400 metres. One village, two philosophies; that contrast is the point of the day.
Old Bridge Winery in Yeghegnadzor is a family estate: the Khalatyans do most of the work themselves, vineyards, cellar, B&B and restaurant. Armen Khalatyan bought a small plot near Arpi in 1998; the family now farms 5 hectares of Areni Noir and Voskehat at 1,250 to 1,300 metres and makes about 15,000 bottles a year. The name is the 13th-century bridge over the Arpa in the field opposite. Keush is Vahe Keushguerian’s traditional-method sparkling, the first from indigenous Armenian grapes, launched in 2013; the Voskehat, Khatouni and Areni come from Khachik, between 1,500 and 1,750 metres, some vines a century old, and the wine is made at WineWorks in Yerevan.
On the Areni road itself: Hin Areni (the largest visitor centre on the road), Momik Wines (karas and oak) and the Areni Wine Factory (1994, Simonyan family).
What a day here looks like on tour#
We sleep in Yeghegnadzor or an Areni guesthouse, so the morning starts in the valley rather than on the highway. The cave first, while it is cool: a short climb, a small fee, ten minutes inside. Then up the canyon to Noravank, where I let the group loose for an hour. Nobody has yet asked me to shorten it.
Late morning is a karas cellar in Rind or Aghavnadzor. We taste with the winemaker, and I pour a steel-fermented Areni beside a karas one so the difference is on the table, not in my description. Lunch is at a family table: lavash from the tonir, herb plates, cheese, tolma or khorovats, the house wine. In autumn there will be grapes on the cloth and someone pressing in the yard.
The afternoon is the second contrast, a modern estate after the karas one, then the Areni roadside stalls to taste what the village drinks. Dinner is at Old Bridge or back in Yeghegnadzor, and I keep the last glass for the Keush, which does well after a day of reds.
Practical#
From Yerevan, Areni is 106 to 110 kilometres by the M2, about 1 h 45 min; Yeghegnadzor is 123 kilometres, up to two hours. Inside the valley the distances are small: Areni to Noravank 8 kilometres, to Rind 12, to Aghavnadzor 10. The Vardenyats pass north to Lake Sevan tops out at 2,410 metres and closes in snow. Khachik is in a border zone; access must be checked in advance, so the wines usually travel to you.
The best months are May to June, when the hills are green and the apricots ripen, and late September to October, when the harvest is in and the Areni Wine Festival fills the village on the first Saturday of October. July and August are hot even here; November to March brings snow above 1,500 metres.
The valley is the spine of my Armenia tour and the opening act of the two-cradles route that continues into Georgia. If you want it at your own pace, a private tour can give it a full week.
