📍 Armavir

Armavir is Armenia's largest wine-growing region, a province in the Ararat Valley. In 2017 it counted 6,792 hectares of vines. This is a sunny country and the main source of Armenian brandy and white wine, though new vineyards with international grapes have gone in during recent years.

The vineyards lie at 900 to 1,100 metres on brown semi-desert soil. January averages about -5 °C and July about +25 °C. Some 165 millimetres of rain fall in the growing season, and the yearly sum of active temperatures is 3,960. The Vine and Wine Foundation of Armenia names Kangun, Garan dmak, Mskhali and Haghtanak as the main grapes.

Together with Ararat, Armavir holds 73 per cent of all Armenian vineyards, according to a review from the national agrarian university. Most of it is planted with technical grapes for brandy. Farms are small: the country has 66,591 grape farms, and 69.6 per cent of them are no larger than 0.1 hectare.

In the village of Merdzavan, in Armavir province, stands the Voskehat Centre of Enology, a branch of the Armenian National Agrarian University. Voskehat, the white "golden berry" grape, is described by the Foundation as common around Ashtarak, Ejmiatsin and Armavir. Producers on the Foundation's list include Karas Wines in Arevadasht and the company MAP in Lenughi.

Compare it with its neighbours. Ararat is smaller, with 4,713 hectares, and warmer: 4,090 degrees of active temperatures against 3,960. Aragatsotn has only 1,253 hectares, but they climb to 1,100 to 1,400 metres. And Areni, the red that made Vayots Dzor famous, is not a main grape here.