📍 Vedi

Vedi is a wine district in Ararat province, part of the Ararat Valley in Armenia. Its best-known address is the Vedi Wine Factory in the Ginevet community, begun in 1952 and finished in 1956 as the wine plant of Vedi district. Around it lie the vineyards of Armenia's sunniest wine region.

Ararat as a whole had 4,713 hectares of vines in 2017, the second largest area in the country. The vineyards sit at 800 to 1,000 metres on brown semi-desert soil. January averages about -4 °C and July about +25 °C. The yearly sum of active temperatures passes 4,000 degrees, so the grapes build up plenty of sugar. The Vine and Wine Foundation of Armenia ties winegrowing here to the reign of an Urartian king, 685 to 645 BC.

The Foundation lists Karmrahyut, Kakhet, Mskhali and Garan dmak as the region's main grapes. Areni, the red you hear about first, belongs to Vayots Dzor more than to Ararat.

Since 1994 the Ginevet plant has belonged to the company Vedi Alco, which took over the Getap Wine Factory in Vayots Dzor in 1999. Its own vineyards date from 2000. They now cover 150 hectares on hills in Vayots Dzor and the Ararat Valley, between 800 and 1,600 metres, mostly planted with Areni.

Set it beside its neighbours. Armavir has more vines, 6,792 hectares. Vayots Dzor has about 1,200 hectares but sits higher and cooler, at 1,000 to 1,700 metres. A genetic study of Armenian vines finds a gradient from west to east: the valley holds mainly white table grapes, and red wine grapes become more common toward Vayots Dzor.