Wine News (40)

An Armenian sparkling Mostly an image post
I tried an Armenian sparkling !
I found the estate shop on Mashrot Avenue while walking randomly there. It is located on # 27 near where it crosses Pushkin street. There was this big picture on the outside with an Armenian legend out of my reach, and I walked the few stairs to the shop. There was no customer in there and I enquired in Russian about what sort of sparkling they had. It's a Champagne method sparkling with various expressions, including the semi-sweet ones which sell well in this part of the world. I bought a Brut and we drank it several days later. You know what ? that was not bad actually, when I was rather suspicious especially that I paid only 1700 Dram for the bottle (makes 3,08 € or 4,56 USD to be precise). The semi-sweet was 1300 Dram only if I remember. I'd certainly stock up this Brut for casual festive apéritifs if I lived here...
We hadn't the right glasses in the rented appartment, to say the least, and so the conditions were not optimum but it made it. I just would have liked to know more about what the label said. I hadn't be very curious when I was in the shop and I forgot to show the bottle to an Armenian for more infos.
After some research in France, I found the winery website. According to its history page, it was soviet built and it was probably making one of those Sovetsskoe Champanskoe (soviet Champagne) wines that we still find in Russia or Ukraine. Here is the page for the Brut I bought (not much info there).

Running grape This sign at the top of the indoor market seems old and could date from the soviet times : you find there an humoristic evocation of what was found on the stalls of the market, which still functions like in the Soviet times, the fruits, the wines, the meat, the vegetables and so on, the farmers using the long cement tables to present their products to the public.
I haven't seen any wine there, there seems to be mostly fruits, vegetables, spices and jellied fruits, something the Armenians do beautifully. I had here some of the most excellent jellied fruits I ever had, some being stuffed with walnut. They have also whole jellied walnuts, complete with the nutshell and skin, amazing and tasty (and soft). Someone also sells herbs for medicine, something you find in Russia and Ukraine too. Cast iron grape Even the cast-iron plates on the sidewalk have grapes on them in this country. This one is a telephone cables cover (with the word telephone written in Russian & Armenian).
Greek grape fantasy This picture was shot at the door of an extravagant property along the highway in the suburb of Yerevan with dozens of revisited fake-greek statues, a fastuous garden and a mansion remotely looking like a miniature Versailles. There was security at the gate but we could take a few pictures. the odd thing is that the immaculate property is close to a drab landscape of uncertain industrial grounds along a dusty highway.
This statue of an angel (she has wings in her back) holding grapes from her basket was fun. The Blue-Mosque grapes I was visiting the Blue Mosque in Yerevan where I stumbled on these beautiful ancient tiles. I was surprised to see vines, grapes and leaves displayed all over the pious mural. It has been renovated beginning in 1999 by an Iranian foundation bearing a somewhat worrying name : Foundation for Religious Propagation. The Armenians agreed for the renovation move as there's a bettering of the relations these last years between the two countries, but balked at going as far as the Iranians would have liked to go in terms of religious service and teachings.
The Iranian side still managed to leave a bust of Khomeini in a corner, protected by a plexiglass panel (why that ? ;-). I met several friendly people in the garden sitting in the middle of the mosque, and exchanged a few words with two Iranian students who didn't look religious at all and seemed eager to speak with a Westerner. Painting in a church This possibly modern painting representing Virgin Mary with Jesus on her lap holding grapes was hanging on the side of the church at the fortified monastery of Khor Virap. The painting hangs in the room from which you can reach the underground pit where Saint Gregory was imprisonated.
The walls of this upper room have been touched by so many pilgrims and fervent people that the stone has vertical grooves like if fingers had succeeded along the centuries to take some of the stone fabric away. See on the picture on left, the walls seem to bleed. Nice vodka bottles Only for the picture. I didn't try that cheap vodka but I should have, just to see how a 1155 Dram vodka tastes and feel on the throat. Makes 2,09 € only for a 50-centiliter bottle, and a bottle that I found nice with its Russian-lettering, its Samogon feel and its wax topping.
Otherwise the vodka aisle in the Armenian shops and supermarkets is very large and diverse with many Russian brands too in addition to the national ones. Sharing a good bottle I met Christian a couple of times in Yerevan. Christian is an American Armenian and a writer who has been living here for a few years and married here. He was very helpful when I was looking for someone making wine on an artisanal scale and he tipped me on his purveyor in Areni deep in the mountains. His writing on wine in his blog is inspiring and he has tasted quite a few of what the shops offer, learning in the way which brands make the better wines.
We shared a bottle with a dinner in this restaurant that isn't listed yet in his Yerevan eating page : The Club, a relax but also a trendy place at the same time where the food is excellent and with a wine list displaying both French and Armenian wines. We had this Novarank Areni 2004 which they had here at 6700 Dram if I remember, which makes 12 €. The wine was not as good as he expected, for me neither, considering it was a 2004, but it somewhat opened later or was it the food, and it eased a bit.
There's another restaurant that I think is worth even if the food is not as good : The Caucasus tavern is a very popular Georgian/Armenian restaurant where you can eat for very little. Just avoid the fries which are very greasy. Medvedevka vodka... We already knew the Puntinka vodka, which sells well in Russia, here comes the Medvedevka vodka. This giant poster can be seen along a highway in the suburbs of Yervan. Maybe the new brand appeared in anticipation to the run-up leading to the Russian presidential elections in 2012. From what I've read here and there, Putinka still leads comfortably, but it may just be that the distiller behind Putinka is better than the one making Medvedevka. Armenian beers There seems to be pretty decent beers in Armenia, I got two of them while having lunch in my Yerevan base. First, a dark Kilikia beer. Of what I remember it was a lightly bitter beer, not exceptional. The brewery was founded in 1952 during the soviet years of Armenia. I wish I had tasted other beers of their range which is wide.
The second beer was a blond beer like we say in France. This Kozel Vetly beer was really good and onctuous, very nice to quench your thirst. As I understand through this article, Czech beers (it's a Czech beer) sell well in Armenia even though it's a premium product. The article says it sells also very well in Russia. A French-Armenian wine Here was good surprise, a wine which both reasonably priced and quite decent to drink. I chose this bottle of Brest Areni 1999 almost randomly in a grocery store in Yerevan, it cost 1500 Dram, more or less if I remember (2,75 € or 3,97 USD). Balanced and fruity with somme tannins to go with, it went down pretty fast for dinner while looking a what TV had to offer in Yerevan. On the back label it is said that it is made by the Brest Wine Factory (the Armenians love to call their respective wineries "factory", not sure it would help in our Western countries) with grapes from the Vayots Dzor region (near Areni) and Armavir region. It says also that it is an Armenian / French JV (for joint venture I guess) and that the bottling took place on july 7th 2005.
I watched some TV in Armenia, as there was the cable or satellite connection, and that was the occasion to feel the beat of the Russian programs (there is lots of Russian TV watching in Armenia). I discovered a Russian channel that I hadn't noticed before : 24DOK, which may translate as 24-hour documentary, it's a cultural channel which has sometimes the feel of a National Geographic centered on Russia and sometimes has history shows about the Soviet Union which makes it look like another Russian channel that I like : Nostagia TV, which runs programs for those who never really quit the soviet era...
For the nostalgic crowd missing the late Soviet Union, there are sweet compensations in the form of these CCCP ice cones (picture on left) which you also find in Russia and Ukraine. A paradise for storks...and UAZ vans This picture shot in a village in the vicinity of Yerevan shows how storks feel well in Armenia : they build their homes on any available pole, sometimes atop an unoccupied one, making the nests look like multi-story cakes. And to optimize housing, small birds seem to have found ways to nestle in the lower part of the huge nests.
Armenia is also a paradise for those looking for older versions of Russian vehicules, like the Volgas, the Jigulis (Ladas) or the all-terrain weird-looking UAZ like this one. As you may know, I am a fan of these bizarre UAZ light trucks. And I am very jealous because a colleague of my relative bought for his private use (and fun) one of these extremely-resilient UAZ mini-buses on an open-air market near Yerevan. These 4-wheel-drive UAZ don't look very trendy but they can drive on any conceivable situation on the dilapidated and muddy side roads of Russia and of any country with tough roads. The only thing is that I'm not sure it would be easy to get it registered in the Loire where I'd like to keep it if I got the courage and the chance to buy one. This particular UAZ is still made to this day, along with several other versions. Armenian bread making Bread making is still very traditional in Armenia. This bakery behind the old soviet-era market on Marshot Avenue makes fresh flat bread on the spot. The bread, which is baked in maybe 60 seconds on the vertical wall of the circular oven, is so large that you have to fold it several times before packing it in your bag.
The women working there were very pleased with these French guys who liked their bread and marvelled at the brisk way they cooked it (see by yourself, it's bread-making like it has always been). Similar bread making in Russia This was last year on the shore of Black Sea near Novorossyisk, Russia. Our guest are baking medium-size round breads in a traditional brick stove, the whole thing looking very similar from the Armenian way. The embers in the bottom keep the walls at the right temperature with a good inertia. Gorgeous bread made the most traditional way. Stuffed breads in a bakery If you're travelling on the cheap like me, these are the places to go in Armenia : bakeries sell all sort of small breads filled with meat or potato or other things and you can rely on them for a quick lunch. This bakery here on Komitas avenue had very fresh such food along with regular bread.
There are also many kebab joints around in Yerevan. While I think kebab meat is one of the unhealthiest type of food, I still bought some a couple of times here, and it tasted awful like if the meat wasn't fresh but I didn't get ill like I expected to.

Comments

[Christian Garbis]

Bertrand, it was a pleasure meeting and spending time with you. I hope our paths will cross again one day. Take care.

Christian