📍 Rind

Rind is a remote village in Vayots Dzor, a stone's throw from the Areni-1 cave. The vineyards and winery of Zorah lie here. The winery itself says these are among the highest vineyards in the northern hemisphere, reaching 1,600 metres above sea level. The main plots sit at 1,400 metres.

The vines stand on their own roots, in rocky, low-vigour, sandy limestone soils that phylloxera never reached. Cuttings came from old abandoned vineyards beside a nearby 12th-century monastery. Winters are severe, summers very dry and bright, and the swing between day and night is large. The long growing season pushes harvest back to October.

At about 1,600 metres lie small plots of ultra-centennial bush vines without irrigation, on volcanic, sedimentary and limestone soils. Most of it is Areni, with a mosaic of other ancient varieties beside it.

In the Zorah winery the clay vessels called karasses take centre stage. Its Karasi wine, made from Areni, ferments in concrete tanks on natural yeast. It then rests about 12 months in large local karasi buried three-quarters of the way into the ground, and about six more in the bottle.

Compare it with its neighbours. Areni village lies lower, at 950 to 1,200 metres, while Rind's vines climb to 1,600. Aghavnadzor is high too, up to 1,650 metres, but its vineyards are broader, around 400 hectares. The province of Vayots Dzor as a whole spans 1,000 to 1,700 metres.