Wine Review: Raise a glass to historically significant Armenian wines

The wine community is well aware of the wine history in France, Spain, Germany and Italy, which extends as far back as the first century. However, in the history of the world, they are newcomers.

Don’t believe that? May I suggest we turn to the Bible. After the “great flood,” it’s recorded (Genesis 9:20) that Noah planted vines at the foot of Mount Ararat, which is at the border of today's Armenia and Turkey, so that he could make wine.

After all of the eons since Noah, Armenia still produces wine, and by now, the vintners in the region definitely have winemaking down pat. If that is so, then why haven’t we heard more, or for that matter, anything about Armenian wines?

The answer is politics. In 1921, Armenia became part of the Soviet Union, and thereafter, almost all of its exports, including wine, went north to Russia with little, if any, going to the west. In the ensuing years, very little in the realm of wine exporting went on because of World War II and then the Cold War. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenian wine producers became able to freely ship their wines to an avid wine drinking world.

Unfortunately, at that time, little, if anything, was known about Armenian wines as they had arrived too late in the western marketplaces. The French, American, Italian, Spanish, Chilean and Argentinian wines had captured a major portion of the wine sales, and there was little room for another entrant.

Today, Armenian wines deserve a place among the wine world's better wines, a place where they richly deserve to be – as the first taste of an Armenian wine can attest to.

Zulal 2018 Areni ($23)
The name Zulal translates as pure, and areni is the name of an Armenian red grape used to make this red wine. I must admit to being surprised at the first taste of this wine. I do not remember what I was expecting, but what I got was a red wine that seemed to have coalesced the flavors and aromas of the finest French and American wines into one. The wine opened with the aromas of black cherry, Hamlin orange and a fruit flavor that I liked but could not identify. The flavors were a rotating kaleidoscope of black cherry, pomegranate and cassis, a spicy note and that mysterious flavor. The finish was as kaleidoscopic as was the aroma and again the mystery flavor. I have tasted many red wines in my career as a wine columnist. I must say that Zulal Areni is among the most interesting that I have sampled in a long time, and I purchased several bottles for my personal library of wines.

2020 Shofer Voskehat White ($20)
I will start by saying that this too was an interesting wine and definitely not your run of the mill white wine. The wine opens with the aromas of freshly cut melon, pear and peach, with a background of ground spice. The flavor continues to the aroma by stressing the melon with a background of herbs. The finish seemed to me to run the gamut of summer fruits and berries. To put it simply, you will know that they are there but cannot pick out one specific flavor. If you have tired of the boring and uninteresting white wines currently taking up space on dealers' shelves, Shofer Voskehat White will be like an Armenian holiday.

Keush Origins Brut ($24)
This is a sparkling wine that is not champagne and not prosecco but rather an Armenian expression of elegance. It offers everything that one expects of a sparkling wine, with the addition of a very interesting mineral background and the Armenian signature summer fruit flavors. It has long-lasting bubbles to create a wine that you will remember for a long time.

Wine columnist Bennet Bodenstein can be reached at frojhe1@att.net.