🍇 Areni

Areni (Areni sev in the VIVC catalogue) is a red grape from Armenia that VIVC lists as a wine and table variety. Armenian researchers call it a late-ripening wine grape. It shares its name with the village of Areni in Vayots Dzor, where the Areni-1 cave yielded chemical traces of winemaking from about 4000 BC.

The cave was described in 2011 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Hans Barnard's team reported chemical evidence of wine production in the Late Chalcolithic in the highlands of the Near East.

The variety is genetically diverse: VIVC lists 62 synonyms, among them the clones Areni sev No. 1–17. A paper from the National Polytechnic University of Armenia (2025) compared wines from the main variety and its clone No. 9 from a collection vineyard in Echmiadzin. The wine from the main variety had more alcohol, anthocyanins and phenolic compounds, a deeper colour, a richer structure and better ageing potential. Clone No. 9 gave a softer wine suited to light reds and rosés.

Since 2017 Armenia has run a national programme to collect and describe local grape varieties; its results show that genetic diversity there is still high (OIV, 2024).

Why it matters to you. On Armenian labels the grape is written as Areni or Areni Noir; it is the same vine. According to the study, wine from the main variety is deeper in colour and able to age, while wine from clones can be lighter, so read the style description carefully. Red wines are served at 15–18 °C.