The best Armenian cognacs: names. The most famous cognac of Armenia

The theme of our article is Armenian cognacs. The names of these drinks have been familiar to people for more than a century. Today we will talk with you not only about individual brands, but also about the history and technology of production of this nectar.

In addition, after reading the article, you will learn some tricks that will help you to distinguish a real aged masterpiece from a fake.

The origin of the drink

The history of the Armenian winemaking counts more than one thousand years. Thus, archaeologists have found barrels, whose age is about twenty-seven centuries. About the wine cellars on the territory of Armenia mentioned Herodotus and Tacitus. The Armenian king, when he went to Nero, together with many gifts presented also a sample of the national tincture.

Modern history begins in 1887, when a merchant founded a brandy factory on the territory of an ancient fortress. But we'll talk more about this later.

Kinds of cognacs

Armenia's cognacs are divided into collections, ordinary and vintage, depending on the period of aging. 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 to the category H.O.

Armenian brandy cognacs are classified as follows.

• The cognac is aged (KV) - the ripening period is six to seven years.
• Cognac seasoned, high quality (KVVK) - eight - ten years.
• Old (KS) - from ten to twenty years of aging.
• Very old (OS) - over twenty years.

Ordinary cognacs are divided as follows.

• The three-year-oldest blend of blends is aged for at least three years in an oak barrel. Usually it is designated by three asterisks.
• Four years. All the same, but aging is four years and four stars on the label.
• Five years, respectively, aged for five years, its label is decorated with five stars.

Collection Armenian cognacs, whose names usually coincide with vintage ones, are made from the latter. But they are aged for three to five years longer than the brandy brandy of the corresponding class.

This division is inherent only in the brandies 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 the Armenian cognac begins. In 1887, the merchant of the first guild, Nerses Tayriants, established this plant. However, in ten years he first leases it, and later sells the merchant Nikolai Shustov.

Since that time the situation 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 the labels. The best drink of the Yerevan factory of that time is the brand of cognac "Select".

After nationalization, there was some decline in production. However, the Soviet government did not destroy the image built by the company "Shustov and Sons". 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 the manufacture of cognac was approached from the point of view of science and calculations. The drink became, maybe, and a little tastier, but the soul from it disappeared. This expensive gift has become standard.

Since 1953, and before 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 customer orientation and marketing calculations. An example is the Armenian cognac "Shirak" in souvenir bottles.

In 1998, the factory 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 cognacs is built according to the standard adopted in 1999. Let's analyze some of its provisions.

So, drinks are made only from grapes grown in the Ararat valley. These varieties include Mskhali, Kangun, Kakhet, Chilar, Voskeat, Fur and Garandmak.

In addition, an important condition is the collection of berries in a slightly immature state, so that the sugar content is not more than 20 percent.

The production process is almost entirely consistent with the French. That is, after vinification, for about ten days, the raw materials are sent for distillation. To do this, use a vat of Charente type distillation or Zorabyan's system. The first relates to systems of double stranding, and the latter to a straight line.

Then the raw material is divided. Ordinary cognacs ripen in enameled barrels on oak riveting, and vintage and collectible casks in oak containers.

Due to the natural temperature, which is present in the storage (winter frost, summer heat), these drinks are soft and harmonious.

Then comes the blending, during which add color, water, syrup and some other ingredients that are described in the recipe. By the way, unlike French cognacs, Armenian water contains spring water.

After blending, the drink "rests" from six months to several years. Further 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.

First, you need to prepare a little. If you really want to become a person who understands these drinks, you will have to memorize 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 price and packaging. If the cost does not match the rest in this range, or if the label is not all right, chances are you're being faked.

Further it is necessary to learn to define endurance of a drink in the closed bottle. Turn it upside down. Flowing drops should leave grooves that will last at least five seconds. If the traces are lost faster, then the product is less than six years old.

When you have already opened the bottle and poured the contents into the glass, do not rush to drink. First look through the cognac on your thumb, pressed against the wall of the container. If you clearly see it, that is, the liquid is pure, uncomplicated, hence, a good quality drink.

And the last. If you talk a little cognac in a glass, it will flow down the walls. Furrows, lasting five seconds, will show his self-control in six years. Fifteen seconds indicate a twenty-year product, and twenty - a minimum of half a century.

Shustov

Armenian brandy cognacs are obtained from famous figures and places. Especially the legend about Noah and the first grapevine is untwisted. Nevertheless, it is believed that the golden age of Armenian cognacs began only after in 1899 the merchant Tayrian sold to Nikolai Shustov the first brandy factory in Armenia.

In a few years, this family has made changes in technology and equipment. My younger brother Nikolai, Vasily Nikolaevich Shustov, went to Europe for a recipe and technological maps.

All this gave a very powerful impetus to the development of the Armenian cognac production. An example is the following story. In the early twentieth century, the Shustov family secretly sent a sample of the cognac "Select" to the exhibition in Paris. There, when tasting blindly, he won the Grand Prix.

It was from this time only Armenian cognac Shustov could have on the label the word "cognac". All the rest that is produced outside the French province with the proper name, can be subscribed only as brandy.

This is how Armenian cognac got international recognition. Shustov after this begins to intensively develop production. Specific, by the way, was the advertising campaign of this merchant. He hired townspeople to dress decently with ladies in the best restaurants, occupy the most expensive places and demanded that they bring the cognac Shustov. Since there it did not turn out, the actors had to make a scandal and leave, fully paying off for the rest of the order. Depressed owners of restaurants literally had to buy his cognac.

In 1920, all the property of this family was nationalized, but the technologies they created could withstand proletarian ignorance. Judging by the researchers' estimates, modern cognac practically does not concede to the famous Shustov early 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 this name.
"Ararat" is the most famous Armenian cognac, the best cognac in the USSR, and today it will give odds to many other brands.

There is an interesting legend associated with this mountain and grapes. According to the Bible, when the flood began to subside after the flood, Noah released a dove, and he returned with a sprig of olive. Later the ark moored to a bare piece of sushi. It was Mount Ararat in Armenia.

It is from here, as Christian scholars say, and Armenians promote this idea in every way, and not only modern mankind, but also winemaking went.

Archaeologists have found with finds that the processing of grapes on this territory began already in the fifteenth century BC.

So, the cognac "Ararat" is one of the oldest brands today. 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, however the equipment is updated, keeping pace with progress.
Cognac "Ararat" is made 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 a brandy like Noah's Ark is for 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, according to Armenians, that his name be immortalized in a terrific drink.

Crosswords often ask: "Armenian cognac, name. 3 letters. " The answers can be "Ani", "Ike" and "Noah". The latter with ease will give odds to the first two, so now it will be about him.

So, in the line of Yerevan products this cognac is represented by three kinds - "Araspel", "Classic" and "The Lord".

They differ in shades, but all these drinks are characterized by a light almond flavor with notes of ripe fruit. "Classic" is aged from seven to twenty years. "The Lord" ripens for a quarter of a century, it is characterized by a muscat aftertaste and light notes of the old port.

Cognacs in the USSR

Fans of this drink remember the old Soviet times, when everything was better, according to GOST, and the standards were not modern.

By the way, on forums it is often possible to meet offended cries of connoisseurs of this drink. It turns out that the French word "cognac" was patented around the 1920s. By that time Shustov's cognacs were already sold in Europe. In addition, in the Soviet Union, many scientists have worked on the development of technologies for the production of cognac. In particular, more than seventy scientific workers worked at the Yerevan plant.

The oldest cognac in the Soviet Union was considered to be a drink called "Sixty years". This miracle really was kept in barrels for six decades.

Many names of popular Armenian cognacs have survived to this day. However, as people of older generations say, the taste has changed significantly. As in the case of the "Doctor" sausage, the product often only has a name.

Cognac "Select" is famous since the beginning of the twentieth century. It was he who was secretly sent to Paris, where he won the Grand Prix. Thanks to this, Shostov's products are now officially allowed to write the word "cognac". It is aged in barrels for six years, for its production water from the Katnahbury spring is used. He was awarded three gold medals.

Many brands have already been mentioned earlier, for example, the legendary Armenian cognac "Ararat". It is believed that in our time, real beverages of this category can be tried only in their homeland.

Thus, in the USSR cognac was a valuable gift, because its quality was constantly rising. It's not for nothing that Pernod Ricard, having bought out the Yerevan plant, repulsed investments very quickly. After all, the reputation of production, earned in the Soviet era, is known and appreciated all over the world.

Legends associated with a drink

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, the volume of wine exports from the Poitou-Charentes region is declining.

At the same time, the Dutch are beginning 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 Armenian cognacs. But it is not supported by historical facts. Its essence is as follows.

Churchill was very fond of the Armenian brandy "Dvin", but once, opening another bottle, he was amazed at the disgusting taste of the product. It turned out that the master who was engaged in its blending fell into exile in Siberia. At the urgent request of the First Lord of the Admiralty, this man was released, after which the production was restored.

Here such entertaining stories go about the Armenian cognac. It is not surprising, because this drink is really tasty and pleasant.

Good luck, dear readers! Try to enjoy life more often.