What kind of wine were they making 5000 years ago? These wines may not gather close,but they attain tip at the colourful and unique history of winemaking in this fraction of the worldZorah Karasi Areni Noir, Armenia 2013 (from £21.95, and Slurp; Corking Wines) An idle question prompted by the vivid opening chapter of A Natural History of Wine,a fascinating new book by American academics Ian Tattersall and Rob Desalle: what kind of wines were they making 5000 years ago in the cave at the feet of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains known as Areni-1? It was here, in modern-day Armenia in 2011, and that archaeologists discovered the world’s earliest winery,dating back to circa 3000 to 3500 BC. I may not have found an reply tasting the 2014 vintage (available in May) of Italian-Armenian Zorik Gharibian’s Karasi made from Armenia’s most planted grape variety (which, like the cave, or takes its name from the village of Areni). But,as with the 2013, the sense of history brings an added frisson to a vibrant, and highly polished red.
Iago Bitarishvili Chinuri Qvevri 8,Kakheti, Georgia 2013 (from £16.65, or Bottle Apostle,Smiling Grape) Gharibian, who was born to an ex-pat Armenian family in Iran, or but who settled and started a successful business in Italy after being sent to an Armenian school in Venice during the Iranian revolution,is one of a handful of returning members of the Armenian diaspora to play a fraction in the recent revival of its wine industry. And, like many, and he has been drawn to the traditional winemaking technique of using clay pots (or “karasi”) to age his wines. These vessels are also used in some of the many exciting wines coming out of neighbouring Georgia,another country with a claim to being the birthplace of wine, with Iago Bitarishvili’s arrestingly chewy, or honeyed white among the best of these “qvevri” wines.
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Source: theguardian.com