Exotic Wine Travel has covered Armenia again, this time talking with Zorah Wines founders Zorik Gharibian and Yeraz Tomasians. In a Facebook live on April 29, they told thousands of Exotic Wine Travel followers about their wines and winemaking in Armenia.

In 2016, Exotic Wine Travel founders Charine Tan and Matthew Horkey published the book ‘Uncorking the Caucasus: Wines from Turkey, Armenia, and Georgia’. Years ago they visited Armenia and tried the wines made in the South Caucasus, whose unique varieties made a strong impression on them.

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Charine Tan and Matthew Horkey have confessed during the talk that Zorik and Yeraz are one of their favorite winemakers, noting they are familiar with Zorah products and very fond of their flavor.

Zorik’s winemaking story begins in 2000: he and Yeraz were one of the first people in Armenia to believe in the country’s potential and make wine from local grape varieties. “No one talked about the local Armenian varieties back then. We started from Areni. People laughed at us when we inquired after local varieties, but I believed I could make high-quality wine from them and aging the wine in karases,” said Zorik.

After a series of experiments with the Areni varieties, Yeraz and Zorik started planting vineyards in 2006 and harvested the grape in 2010. Two years later, their wines hit the market. “I don’t like to work quickly. Any wine of Zorah has to be over 100% good, which is why we have just 3 wine varieties after 20 years of doing this project. We are working on the fourth variety. Every year we experiment with different grapes. We don’t use mixed varieties.

I am a perfectionist. Nothing is done quickly for Zorah, and we never press anyone. We have adapted to the climate and pace of Vayots Dzor perfectly,” said Zorik.

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Charine and Matthew have pointed out that Zorah Karasi Areni Noir featured on Bloomberg’s list of the world’s top 10 wines in 2012 and asked Zorah founders to share their success story.

“It was the first episode of international recognition for Zorah. The secret is to have a simple, long-term vision, be meticulous and persistent in your work, and believe in what you do,” said Zorik.

Zorik and Yeraz have also stressed that Armenia strongly needs advertising in the global winemaking arena, which is why they are trying to be represented on all possible platforms and spare neither time nor effort for business trips.

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Zorik Gharibian | Image by: Zorah

“Quality is the guarantee of success, especially in the winemaking world. When you are confident in your product, you have to travel around the world and present it on different platforms. Particularly in case of Zorah, we have to do things that way, because no one knew about Armenia when we first started. Fortunately, the sector has progressed in Armenia, and many people know about our wines. Areni is already on the global wine map. We need to keep up the work and continue our path,” said Zorik and Yeraz.

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Responding to the question from Charine about which famous wine is similar to Areni, Zorika has replied he doesn’t like comparing, because Areni has its own place in the world.

“It is a proven fact that Areni is 100% Armenian, so it is not similar to any other variety. We are very lucky to have Areni in Vayots Dzor. Many people come here in recent time, eager to invest, and we ask them to respect the marz and to not bring vaccines.

Vayots Dzor can be considered one of the few places with centuries-long history, a range of varieties, a traditional method of aging wine, and what’s the most important, without phylloxera. If you come to Vayots Dzor, mind that we have inherited this unique place and we must leave it as legacy to the future generations. Vaccinating the vineyards, which are free from phylloxera, increases the risk of infection. If you consider vaccines necessary for your business, choose a different place in Armenia,” Zorik and Yeraz concluded the talk with this call.

Amalie Khachatryan