Carving out a new market niche: Historic world of wines

Semina Consulting, Melkumov 18/8, Yerevan 0054, Armenia

Abstract

When in 2007 teams of archaeologists discovered the oldest known winery in a cave in Areni – a wine region of Armenia – Armenian winemaking was in a nascent stage. Arguably this significant historic discovery gave a much-needed boost to Armenian winemaking – as now the country's wine producers could tell a compelling story. This discovery also drew greater attention of other scientists – from grape geneticists to archaeobotanics – to continue the research and inquiry into indigenous vinifera grape varietals of Armenia, and how these species could potentially be linked to European grapes. Most notably, these historic varieties, although some entirely extinct, others nearly extinct, but many have exceptional vinifera qualities. This, in turn, continues to engage more and more not only local winemakers but now also renowned and prominent names in the world of wine. The increasingly high quality wines coming out of not only Armenia, but also other countries from the geographic region, which this paper suggest to qualify as historic, deserve not only a mention, but arguably a niche of their own.