Karasi 2020

The king of Armenia's grapes and perhaps one of the oldest grape varieties in the world, Black Areni has been present in the country for millennia. Never grafted onto American plants, it is 100% indigenous to this land with a unique DNA profile that does not match any other. Elegant and fresh, with thick skin and extremely resistant to disease, the Black Areni has adapted perfectly over the ages to the high altitudes and extreme temperature variations of Vayots Dzor, its natural habitat. The wine is vinified with native yeasts in concrete vats to provide micro-oxygenation and will go through a 14-day maceration. The Karasi vintage has the particularity of having then aged for 12 months in " Karas " or traditional Armenian amphora , dug into the ground, hence its name "Karasi" which literally means "coming from an amphora". This complex wine reveals the character of its incredible terroir giving complex aromas of slightly spicy and toasted red fruits and black fruits . There purity of fruit gives a wine with a lot of energy. It is balanced and straight in mouth, with aromas of pepper  and a touch of graphite . The whole is silky, juicy and melted with a beautiful minerality which provides good length.

In the eighth century, Armenia was called the “land of vineyards”. The vine proliferated in these regions in the wild for over a million years before being domesticated. More than a decade ago, a series of archaeological "firsts" were discovered in a cliffside cave near the mountain town of Areni. These include the oldest known shoe, the oldest known brain tissue from the Old World, and a 6,100-year-old wine cellar, the oldest ever discovered on earth. In what is now known as Areni Cave, the public can see cylindrical clay vessels (each over a meter in diameter) where wine was produced for burial ceremonies. Armenia, which was part of the USSR for a long time (1922-1991), was its main commercial outlet. Since the implosion of the communist bloc, it has experienced a revival with declining consumption of "Brandys" and an increase in the consumption of wines and an opening to international markets. Throughout the Soviet period, Armenia was the center of brandy production. Armenian "Cognac" was particularly renowned for its quality and Winston Churchill was an avid consumer. It was the independence of Armenia which was the driving force behind the revival of the wine industry with the return to the country of many Armenians from the diaspora. Armenia's specialization in distillation has favored white grape varieties at the expense of red grape varieties and today there are 12 varieties of white and only 3 varieties of red. The country is located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, however the climate is dry and the majority of vineyards are wedged between the deserts in the south and the great plains in the north. The climate is continental with particularly harsh winters and very hot summers so that quality viticulture takes place at altitude (90% of the country is at an altitude above 1000 meters). This allows the vegetative cycle of the vine to take place in good conditions because the temperature differences are significant.