ArArAt (brandy)

ArArAt

ArArAt Nairi, 20 years old
Founded	1887
Founder	Yerevan Brandy Company
Headquarters	Yerevan, Armenia
Products	Brandy
Owner	Pernod Ricard
Website	www.ybc.am

ArArAt is an Armenian brandy (cognac-style) that has been produced by the Yerevan Brandy Company since 1887. It is made from Armenian white grapes and spring water, according to a traditional method.

"Ordinary brandies" are aged for 3, 4, 5, or 6 years, the soft flavor of the brandy being based on selected brands of wines and pure spring water, which help to create a unique taste for each type of ArArAt brandy. The "aged brandies" of 10, 15, 18, and 20 years each have their own unique taste and specific dark golden color.

The distinctive aroma and rich bouquet of these brandies allowed the Yerevan Brandy Company to enjoy considerable success in international exhibitions and tastings. ArArAt brandy is not only popular in Armenia, but in many of the former states of the Soviet Union, chief among them Russia, Georgia, Ukraine and Belarus. In the Russian-speaking countries of the former Soviet Union the Armenian brandy is marketed as cognac (Russian: армянский коньяк, tr. armjanskij konjak). This is because in 1900, the brandy won the Grand-prix award in Paris and the company so impressed the French that they have been allowed to legally call the product "cognac". The term "brandy" has never really caught on in the region.

An undocumented anecdote claims that during the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill was so impressed with the Armenian brandy Dvin given to him by Joseph Stalin that he asked for several cases of it to be sent to him each year. Reportedly 400 bottles of Dvin were shipped to Churchill annually. This brandy was named in honour of the ancient capital Dvin, and was first produced in 1943.

During a 2013 meeting at his personal villa in Sochi, Russian president Vladimir Putin gave British Prime Minister David Cameron a bottle of Armenian brandy as a gift, recalling Stalin's offering to Churchill in 1945.