Armenia: Areni, karas and the canyons of Vayots Dzor

This is the route I run when someone asks me where wine began and wants an answer they can drink. Seven days, Yerevan to Yerevan, most of them in Vayots Dzor, the high valley of the Arpa in southern Armenia, where Areni Noir grows between 1,000 and 1,800 metres and a cave above the road held a working winery around 4100 BC. Three nights in the valley, clay karas beside steel, family tables, and a last day on the slopes of Mount Aragats in Aragatsotn. Six to ten guests, and I pour the old cellars and the new with the same respect.

Day 1: Yerevan#

Arrive when your flight allows; the airport is 20 to 30 minutes from the centre and a driver meets each of you. At 18:00 we gather at the hotel and walk to WineWorks, the city winery where Vahe Keushguerian makes Keush, the first traditional-method sparkling from native Armenian grapes, launched in 2013. The vines stand in Khachik, a remote village between 1,500 and 1,750 metres in the border zone, which we do not visit, so the wine comes down to us: Origins Brut, 60 percent Voskehat and 40 percent Khatouni, more than 22 months on lees, citrus and white flowers with a chalky grip. I open with it because Armenia is not only brandy and dark reds. Dinner is free tonight; I book you a table near Saryan Street, where the wine bars are.

Day 2: Yerevan to Areni and Yeghegnadzor#

We leave at 08:30 on the M2 south. If the morning is clear we stop at Khor Virap for Ararat over the vines. Areni is 110 kilometres and about 1 h 45 min away. The cave comes first, while it is cool: a short climb, a small fee, and inside the treading basin and buried jar from around 4100 BC. Eight kilometres up the Amaghu canyon, Noravank stands under red cliffs; its two-storey church was finished in 1339, and you get an hour, which no guest has yet handed back. Lunch in Areni is herb plates, cheese and lavash from the tonir. Then 15 minutes to Yeghegnadzor and the Khalatyan family’s Old Bridge Winery: 5 hectares of Areni Noir and Voskehat at 1,250 to 1,300 metres, some 15,000 bottles a year, the 13th-century bridge in the field opposite. We taste in the cellar, eat at their restaurant and sleep in a small hotel in Yeghegnadzor.

Day 3: Rind and the karas of Zorah#

Rind sits above the Arpa at 1,400 to 1,600 metres, half an hour from Yeghegnadzor, climbing the whole way. Zorah Wines is here, the estate most guests already know by name. Zorik Gharibian came from the Armenian diaspora in Milan, planted from old-vine Areni cuttings and made his first vintage in 2010: about 15 hectares of Areni Noir, Voskehat, Garan Dmak and Chilar, native yeasts, fermentation in concrete and large casks, then old village karas buried in the cellar floor. It is not a walk-in winery, so I arrange the morning in advance. Karasì is the wine to learn the place by: mid-ruby, sour cherry, white pepper, fine tannin. What the clay does, I explain in qvevri, karas and amphora. Lunch is cooked by a family in the village with wine from their own vines. Afternoon: an optional two-hour walk above the vineyards, or a chair and a book. Night in a family guesthouse in Rind.

Day 4: Aghavnadzor and the Areni road#

Aghavnadzor is 20 minutes back down the valley at about 1,300 metres, and it holds the week’s clearest contrast inside one estate. Trinity Canyon Vineyards, founded in 2009 by Hovakim Saghatelyan, Artem Parseghyan and their partners, farms organically and makes wine in two registers: the Ancestors line, fermented and aged in clay karas, and the top wines from a modern cellar. We start with the 6100 line, named for the age of the winery in the cave, then taste the same grape from karas and from the new cellar, and I let the table argue. Lunch is khorovats over wood coals. On the way back we stop at the roadside stalls in Areni, where homemade wine is sold in plastic bottles; I insist on this, because it is what the valley actually drinks. Dinner is mine: Areni Noir from steel, karas and oak, poured blind, with tolma. Night in Yeghegnadzor.

Day 5: over the Vardenyats pass to Lake Sevan and Yerevan#

A travel day, and the best drive of the week if the weather agrees. From Yeghegnadzor the road climbs north to the Vardenyats pass at 2,410 metres, past the 14th-century caravanserai, and drops to Lake Sevan at about 1,900 metres. Lunch on the shore is ishkhan, the Sevan trout, grilled with herbs, and I pour a Voskehat beside it because that is the pairing this country does best. From the lake it is about an hour to Yerevan. The pass closes in snow, so in May we check the road the evening before; if it is shut we return by the M2 and spend the afternoon in a brandy cellar instead. Dinner is free tonight; ask me for a table. Night in Yerevan.

Day 6: Aragatsotn, Voskevaz and Van Ardi#

Aragatsotn lies north-west of the city on the slopes of Mount Aragats, at 4,090 metres Armenia’s highest, and it is Voskehat’s home ground. We drive 40 minutes past Ashtarak to Voskevaz, a village whose name means golden bunch. Voskevaz Winery was built as a Soviet state plant in 1932 and has been run by the Hovhannisyan family since 1997; its karas hall, described as the country’s largest collection of working karas, is still in use. The Karasi Collection ferments in those vessels and matures in oak: the Voskehat is textured, quince and honey with a faint note of clay. Lunch is at the winery restaurant. Then 15 minutes to Sasunik and Van Ardi at 1,050 metres, where Varuzhan Mouradian came back from the United States in 2008 to plant Areni, Kakhet, Kangun, Haghtanak and Syrah for steel and oak; we taste on the terrace, the classic counterpart to the morning’s clay. Farewell dinner in Yerevan.

Day 7: Yerevan#

Breakfast, then the airport, 20 to 30 minutes away and timed to your flight. If you leave late, the morning is for the market: dried apricots, walnuts set in thickened grape must, which the stalls call sharots, and a bottle or two from the week to carry home. By now I will have told you which ones travel well and which are better drunk in Yerevan tonight by someone staying on. If you are going on to Georgia, the two cradles route picks up here with the drive north to Tbilisi.

Who this tour is for#

People who like wine and want to know where it came from, without a lecture. You do not need to tell Areni Noir from Pinot Noir on day 1; by day 4 you will. Couples, friends and solo travellers who like company at a long table. It suits walkers who want their two hours above Rind, and those who would rather stay with the cheese. It does not suit anyone in a hurry: the valley roads are slow, the tables are long, and I plan for both. For your own group on your own dates, the same route runs as a private tour for two to twelve.

Practical notes#

Yerevan Zvartnots airport is 12 to 15 kilometres west of the centre. From Vienna or Prague the flight takes about 3.5 to 4 hours; check current schedules. EU passports, Czech ones included, enter visa-free.

In May and June expect 22 to 30 °C in Yerevan and cool nights in the valley; 1,400 metres in May means a jacket after dark. In late September and October the sky is usually clear and the harvest is in. The Areni Wine Festival falls on the first Saturday of October, which on the autumn departure is the day we fly home, so ask me about staying on.

Pack layers, closed shoes for cellars and the cave, and a hat. The walking is easy apart from the short climb on uneven ground to the cave and the optional two hours above Rind. Bring dram for stalls and family tables; cards work in Yerevan and at the larger wineries. Deposits, single rooms and dietary needs are covered in the FAQ.