The topic of our article is Armenian cognacs. The names of these drinks have been familiar to people for over a century. Today we will talk with you not only about individual brands, but also about the history and production technology of this nectar.
In addition, after reading the article, you will learn some tricks that will help you distinguish a real seasoned masterpiece from a fake.
Drink origin
The history of Armenian winemaking has more than one thousand years. So, archaeologists found barrels whose age is about twenty-seven centuries. The wine cellars in Armenia were mentioned by Herodotus and Tacitus. The Armenian king, when he went to Nero, along with many gifts presented a sample of the national tincture.
But modern history begins in 1887, when one merchant established a cognac factory on the territory of an ancient fortress. But in more detail we will talk about this later.
Types of Cognac
Cognacs of Armenia are divided, depending on the aging period, into collection, ordinary and vintage. In principle, this classification was inherent in the Soviet period. In France, for example, cognacs that are more than six years old do not stand out separately. They go in the category X.O.
Armenian brandy cognacs are classified as follows.
- Aged brandy (KV) - the ripening period is six to seven years.
- Aged cognac of high quality (KVVK) - eight to ten years.
- Old (COP) - from ten to twenty years of aging.
- Very old (OS) - over twenty years.
Ordinary cognacs are divided as follows.
- Three-year-old - the youngest blend alcohol is aged for at least three years in an oak barrel. Usually indicated by three asterisks.
- Four year old. All the same, but the exposure is four years and four stars on the label.
- Five-year, respectively, is aged five years, its label is decorated with five stars.
Collectible Armenian cognacs, whose names usually coincide with vintage ones, are made from the latter. But they are aged three to five years longer than vintage cognac of the corresponding class.
This division is inherent only in cognacs of the former socialist republics. European cognacs and Armagnacs have a completely different classification and labeling.
Yerevan factory
It is with this production that the whole history of Armenian cognac begins. In 1887, a merchant of the first guild, Nerses Tairyants, established this factory. However, ten years later, he first rents it out and later sells it to the merchant Nikolai Shustov.
Since that time, the state of affairs has radically changed. Shustov takes the plant's products to the world level, wins the first prize at an exhibition in Paris, after which he gets the right to write the word “cognac” on labels. The best drink of the Yerevan factory of that time is considered the brand of “Selective” brandy.
After nationalization, there was a slight decline in production. However, the Soviet government did not destroy the image built by the Shustov and Sons company. To the credit of the new government, they undertook to develop this profitable direction. In Soviet times, seventy graduates with scientific degrees worked at this plant.
Now cognac was approached from the point of view of science and calculations. The drink became maybe a little tastier, but the soul disappeared from it. This expensive gift has become standard.
From 1953 until the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Yerevan Brandy Factory had a monopoly on the production of these drinks.
Later they began to produce products with a focus on consumers and marketing calculations. An example is the Armenian brandy “Shirak” in souvenir bottles.
In 1998, the plant was bought by the French company Pernod Ricard for thirty million dollars. And next year they introduced a new standard called “Armenian Cognac”.
Production technology
The modern production of Armenian cognac is built according to the standard adopted in 1999. Let's look at some of its provisions.
So, drinks are made only from grapes grown in the Ararat Valley. These varieties include Mskhali, Kangun, Kakhet, Chilar, Voskeat, Mehli and Garandmak.
In addition, an important condition is the collection of berries in a slightly unripe state, so that the sugar content is not higher than 20 percent.
The production process is almost completely consistent with French. That is, after vinification, for about ten days, the raw materials are sent for distillation. For this, a distillation apparatus of the Charente type or the Zorabyan system is used. The former relates to double-clutch systems, while the latter is direct.
Further, the raw materials are separated. Ordinary cognacs ripen in enameled barrels on oak stave, and vintage and collection ripen in oak containers.
Due to the natural temperature, which is present in the store (frost in winter, heat in summer), these drinks are quite soft and harmonious.
Next is blending, during which color, water, syrup and some other components are added, which are described in the recipe. By the way, unlike French cognacs, Armenian contains spring water.
After blending, the drink “rests” from six months to several years. Then it is treated with cold, filtered twice and bottled.
How to distinguish a fake
Now we will learn how to distinguish real Armenian cognac. There are seven rules that guide connoisseurs.
Firstly, you should be a little prepared. If you really want to become a person who understands these drinks, you will have to remember several factories that produce Armenian cognacs. Their names are easy to find in open sources. Now you will not be misled by the address of an unknown production.
The second point is the price and packaging. If the cost does not match the others in this range, or if the label is not all right, most likely, you are fake.
Next, you should learn how to determine the exposure of a drink in a closed bottle. Turn it upside down. Flowing drops should leave grooves that last at least five seconds. If the traces disappear faster, then the product is less than six years old.
When you have already opened the bottle and poured the contents into a glass, do not rush to drink. First, look through the cognac at your thumb, pressed against the wall of the container. If you see it clearly, that is, the liquid is clean, clear, then the drink is of good quality.
And the last one. If you chat a little cognac in a glass, it will flow down the walls. Fissures lasting five seconds will show his endurance at six years. Fifteen seconds indicate a twenty-year product, and twenty seconds indicate a minimum of half a century.
Shustov
Armenian cognacs receive names from famous figures and places. The legend of Noah and the first vine is especially untwisted. Nevertheless, it is believed that the golden age of Armenian cognacs began only after the merchant Tahiryan sold the first cognac factory in Armenia to Nikolai Shustov in 1899.
Over the years, this family has made changes in technology and equipment. The younger brother of Nikolai, Vasily Nikolayevich Shustov, traveled to Europe for a recipe and technological maps.
All this gave a very powerful impetus to the development of the Armenian brandy production. An example is the following story. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Shustov family secretly sent a sample of the Selective cognac to an exhibition in Paris. There, during a blind tasting, he won the Grand Prix.
Since that time, only Armenian Shustov cognacs could have the word “cognac” on the label. Everything else that is produced outside the French province with the appropriate name can only be signed as brandy.
That is how the Armenian brandy received international recognition. Shustov then begins to intensively develop production. Specific, by the way, was the advertising campaign of this merchant. He hired the townspeople to go to the best restaurants with ladies in decent clothes, take the most expensive places and demand that they bring Shustov's cognac. Since he did not find himself there, the actors had to make a scandal and leave, having paid in full for the rest of the order. Dejected restaurant owners were literally forced to buy his cognac.
In 1920, all the property of this family was nationalized, but the technology they created was able to resist proletarian ignorance. Judging by the estimates of researchers, modern cognac is practically not inferior to the famous Shustovsky beginning of the twentieth century.
"Ararat"
In Armenia, the name “Ararat” is given only to the best. A football club, a fashionable and expensive restaurant ... Even children are sometimes called by that name.
"Ararat" is the most famous Armenian cognac, the best cognac in Soviet times, and even today it will give odds to many other brands.
There is an interesting legend associated with this mountain and grape. According to the Bible, when after the flood the water began to subside, Noah released a dove, and he returned with a sprig of olive. Later, the ark moored to a bare piece of land. It turned out to be Mount Ararat in Armenia.
It is from here, as Christian scholars say, that the Armenians are promoting this idea in every possible way, and not only modern mankind, but also winemaking has gone.
Archaeologists have confirmed that the processing of grapes in this area began already in the fifteenth century BC.
So, Ararat cognac is today one of the oldest brands. Its production has been going on for more than one hundred and twenty years. It is noteworthy that the technology has not changed since that time, but the equipment is being updated, keeping up with the progress.
Cognac "Ararat" make at the Yerevan factory. It is represented by such species as “Three Stars”, “Five Stars”, “Dvin”, “Akhtamar”, “Armenia” and others. It is noteworthy that most elite varieties are aged for thirty years, and brandy such as Noah's Ark - as much as half a century!
"Noah"
In this case, the biblical legend of the flood, the ark and miraculous salvation is again exploited. The fact that, according to legend, Noah laid the first vineyards in a new place, he deserved, in the opinion of the Armenians, that his name was immortalized in an amazing drink.
Crossword puzzles often include the question: “Armenian cognac, name. 3 letters. " The answer options can be Ani, Ike and Noah. The latter will easily give odds to the first two, so now we will focus on it.
So, in the line of Yerevan products this cognac is represented by three types - “Araspel”, “Classic” and “Lord”.
They differ in shades, but all these drinks have a light almond flavor with hints of ripe fruit. "Classic" is aged from seven to twenty years. "Lord" ripens a quarter of a century; it has a musky aftertaste and light notes of old port.
Cognac in the USSR
Fans of this drink remember even the old Soviet times, when everything was better, according to GOST, and the standards were not a couple of modern.
By the way, on the forums you can often find resentful exclamations of connoisseurs of this drink. It turns out that the French word cognac was patented around the 1920s. By that time, Shustov cognacs were already sold with might and main in Europe. In addition, in the Soviet Union, many scientists worked on the development of technologies for the production of cognac. In particular, more than seventy researchers worked at the Yerevan factory.
The oldest cognac in the Soviet Union was considered a drink called "Sixty Years." This miracle was really kept in barrels for six decades.
Many names of popular Armenian cognacs have survived to the present day. However, as older people say, taste has changed significantly. As in the case of the "Doctor" sausage, the product often remains only the name.
Cognac "Selective" is famous since the beginning of the twentieth century. It was he who was secretly sent to Paris, where he won the Grand Prix. Due to this, today the word "cognac" is officially allowed to be written on Shustov’s products. Aged in barrels for six years, water from Katnakhbyur spring is used for its manufacture. Awarded with three gold medals.
Many brands have already been mentioned before, for example, the legendary Armenian brandy “Ararat”. It is believed that in our time, real drinks of this category can be tasted only in their homeland.
Thus, in the USSR, cognac was a valuable gift, because its quality was constantly rising. No wonder “Pernod Ricard”, having bought the Yerevan plant, repulsed investments very quickly. Indeed, the reputation of production earned in the Soviet era is known and appreciated throughout the world.
Drink Legends
The most famous story of the appearance of such a drink as cognac is as follows. In the sixteenth century, due to the decline in production and the economic crisis, wine exports from the Poitou-Charentes region are declining.
At the same time, the Dutch began to develop distillation. In the town of Cognac in the south-west of France, they took advantage of this idea, but improved it by double distillation. The product was stored in oak barrels. The result is a completely new drink.
The name cognac was patented only in 1936.
In the Soviet Union, however, there was another legend about the cognacs of Armenia. But it is not confirmed by historical facts. Its essence is as follows.
Churchill was very fond of the Armenian brandy “Dvin”, but once, having opened the next bottle, he was struck by the disgusting taste of the product. It turned out that the master in charge of his blend got into exile in Siberia. At the urgent request of the First Lord of the Admiralty, this man was released, after which production was restored.
These are interesting stories about Armenian cognac. Not surprising, because this drink is really tasty and pleasant.
Good luck, dear readers! Try to enjoy life more often.