Fans of finely aged brandy, take note: Add Armenia to the list of countries vying for your palate. The country is currently home to dozens of individual producers, producing upwards of 20 million liters of alcohol per year, most bound for export. And the country’s oldest operational producer—Yerevan Brandy, named for the country’s capital—is exporting products that rival some of the world’s best aged grape spirits.
To be clear, Armenian brandy is hardly new. As my colleague Joseph Micaleff wrote in 2018, legends of Armenian distillation date back hundreds of years. While legends abound, the modern era of Armenian brandy traces its origins to 1887, when two brothers set up Shustov & Sons (Yerevan’s forerunner) and began distillation in alembic stills to mirror French cognac production. At the 1900 Universal Expo of Paris, Shustov’s brandy was selected first after blind judging; in recognition of this achievement, the company was given permission to legally market their product as cognac, even though it was produced outside of France.
Under USSR rule, the privately-held Shustov & Sons would become nationalized, though production and popularity continued to expand, with products fulfilling high demand for cognac throughout the Soviet republics. One popular—but highly disputed—story claims Winston Churchill was particularly impressed by a high-proof expression called Dvin, which Stalin supposedly gave him at 1944’s Yalta Conference.
In 1999, the post-Soviet Armenian government sold Yerevan Brandy to Pernod Ricard, which today owns and operates the facility as one of the nation’s biggest producers. Post-WWII, the company that would become Yerevan Brandy lost its permission to market internationally as cognac. However, the name had stuck locally and throughout much of the Soviet world. Yerevan Brandy’s website still makes heavy reference to “Armenian cognac,” though parent company Pernod Ricard refers to the products as “cognac-style brandy.”
Similar to true cognac, today’s Armenian brandy is produced by double-distillation in Charentais stills, though only certain varieties of Armenian and Georgian grape are permitted for use. All maturation happens in casks made from Caucasian oak—Yerevan’s casks are made from trees at least 70 years old—which imparts unique flavor properties to the aged liquid.
While Yerevan Brandy’s story is enough to make history buffs swoon, from what I’ve sampled, the company’s products are delicious enough to stack up to many of the world’s most revered aged spirits, including both cognac and armagnac. Yerevan Brandy produces across five categories of products: The Core Range, Flavored Range, Ultra Premium, Limited Edition, and Vintage Collection. Flavored expressions include grape spirit infused with Apricot, Coffee, Cherry, and Honey. The Erebuni Limited Collection includes expressions with eye-popping 30, 50, and 70 year age statements.
The Core Range features three tasty premium-tier expressions that, while not exactly common, are certainly findable via specialty retailers in the United States, all under the ARARAT brand.
ARARAT VSOP Brandy, bottled at 40% ABV, is a blend of over 15 different distillates that would stand out well in a lineup of similarly-aged brandy, with dried fruit and plum flavors dialed way up. The finish leans heavily into honeycomb-drizzled toast.
ARARAT Dvin Brandy, bottled at 50%, is the contemporary descendent of the higher-proof product Churchill may have enjoyed. Of the three expressions described here, it’s by far my favorite of the bunch, and the one I’d reach for most frequently. It features a rich, nutty character, vibrant spice, and fruit-adjacent tannins akin to some of my favorite highly-aged armagnacs.
Finally, ARARAT Nairi XO Brandy, bottled at 40% ABV, carries a minimum age statement of 20 years. The flavor walks a fine line between elegant grape flavors and hefty baking spice; like the VSOP expression, the finish leans into both honey and toast, with more balanced and drying tannins in the final act.
ARATA VSOP, Dvin, and Nairi XO Brandy carry suggested retail prices of $64.99, $99.99, and $109.99, respectively.
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