“Tateon”. This is the way Armen Karapetyan – a baritone, who re-certified as a restaurateur in France – poetically named a new premium drink, and two years ago established in his native Vardenis the production of apple brandy. The first thing I remembered after tasting “Tateon” was Joan’s quote from Remarque’s “Arch of Triumph” – “After this calvados I’ll never drink any other kind!” Let’s figure out why?

For me, a strong drink from apples is first of all calvados. Poetized by Remarque in “Arch of Triumph.” Romantic. Strong. And Norman.

In France, by the way, they don’t think so. They get many different drinks by distilling apple cider. Lambig, for example, - is Brittany equivalent of the Norman calvados. It is also regulated by the appellation. Calvados was just lucky – it is better known. Thanks to the same Remarque. Although, it must be admitted that Normandy, Brittany and Maine are the only ones who have the legal right to distill cider and get apple eau-de-vie.

The same law regulates how many and what sorts of apples should minimally be present in the blend of the drink. And what apples are used for the production of “Tateon”?

Honestly? I have no idea. They are being transported to us from all over Vardenis – ten, twenty kilograms, full racks of “Zhiguli” [Soviet car brand]. What kinds of apples are not brought! And as far as with the Armenian law apple sorts are not spelled out for distillation, you have to rely on your own taste. If a farmer brought harvest but I did not like the taste or scent of the apples, I will take it for the first time [for the person not having worked in vain and made his way]. But only for the first time.

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Image by: Mediamax

I lived in the region where calvados is produced for a long time, I studied the technology and I know all the nuances of its production. Apple brandy is usually made from 20-40 sorts of apples – sweet, bitter, sour, intended for cider (only in Normandy there are 150 of them). There are many sweet, aromatic varieties in Armenia. It is worse with bitter apples, which are needed for tannin and the harmony of the drink. Our suppliers collect them in the wild gardens of Vardenis. By the way, the first blend of “Tateon” included apples from Karvachar – small but very aromatic. I have not seen such apples anywhere, even in Normandy. Unfortunately, our apple brandy will not contain Karvachar apples for now.

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Image by: Mediamax

So, in “Tateon” we have used many varieties of apples, but even I do not know exactly which ones. I can say for sure that our apple brandy contains only apple tree and its fruits. For me, “Tateon” is reincarnation of an apple tree.

How does the transmigration of the spirit of the apple tree into the drink take place? As far as I understand, this is your know-how, since for calvados apple eau-de-vie is kept in oak barrels.

When I started doing “Tateon” I tried not to think about calvados – I prefer pure creativity. I do not like beaten tracks either. It was absolutely logical for me that apple alcohol must be kept in an apple tree. It just remained to develop the technology. What we – my brother Henrikh and I – started doing.

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Armen Karapetyan | Image by: Mediamax

It is me and him, thinking under an apple tree in the garden, who my son Vram depicted on the label. Do you know how many apples I tried? I tasted wood – it, like apples, tastes very differently. I realized that the quality of the fruit of the tree depends on the taste and the scent of the wood. As for the “Tateon” bouquet, the color of the drink - it depends on the degree of roasting of the apple wood. We dip the roasted wood, which has already given its smoke to alcohol, into an apple eau-de-vie. And, at least six months, we are waiting for the result. “The beauty is that you never know where you are, where you go and what the end will be,” said Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti.

And what was the beginning? Why have you decided to produce calvados?

In September 2018 I arrived in Vardenis. Tons of apples were rotting in the gardens. People were cutting apple trees because they did not know what to do with the harvest. For me, who for 24 years lived in Calvados appellation, it was inadmissible.

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Armen Karapetyan | Image by: Mediamax

My brother and I bought the first 60 tons, gathered almost all our relatives in the garden and started sorting the apples, set them to ferment… Do you imagine how many billions of bacteria are responsible for the fermentation in a vat? I turn on waltzes for them – the liquid has a memory, and the memories must be happy. No, after all, I am a musician not a businessman.

Have you chosen the name yourself? What does the name “Tateon” mean?

In parallel with the start of production we though about the name – it was to be bright, selling and Armenian. We thought about naming it “Vardenis” but moved deeper into the history of the region and reached till the year of 370: Movses Khorenatsi noted that that year many Greek soldiers were killed in the province of “Tateon” which is 30km west of Bayazet.

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Armen Karapetyan | Image by: Mediamax

Later, with the suggestion of the Armenian clergy, they began to name it Diadin. My ancestors come from there – in 1829, they, like many other Diodinians came to Vardenis. By the way, many people of Vardenis today as well speak in the dialect of the ancient Tateon.

And yet - why did you decide to produce an apple brandy, and not a more “civilized” grape brandy?

So that the world starts talking about a premium drink that is born from Armenian apples, from the Armenian land, in the edge of the earth - in Vardenis. So that everyone who drinks Tateon has a better mood - this is the property of the drink, how the apple tree conveys its soul and character.

Erna Revazova talked to Armen Karapetyan
Photos: Emin Aristakesyan