Wine Before and After the Genocide

I'll Drink to That! Wine Talk

Levi Dalton

Levi Dalton, Spain, Terroir, Napa Valley, Winemaker, Red Wine, Food, Burgundy, Personal Journals, Restaurant, Australia, Sommelier, Journalist, Portugal, Vineyard, Piemonte, Grape, Interview, Arts, Society & Culture, White Wine, Loire Valley, Champagne, Sicilia, Austria, Tuscany, Conversation, Hobbies, Wine Business, Leisure, Bordeaux, Sonoma, Feedpodcast, Wine, Germany, Author

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2020

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Zorik Gharibian is the founder of the Zorah winery, in the Vayots Dzor region of southern Armenia.

Zorik discusses the long history of wine production in Armenia, referencing evidence that wine was made in Armenia in the Copper Age (about 6,000 years ago). He talks about the grape remnants and clay storage jars that have been found from that time. And he discusses other wine related finds in Armenia, in both the pre-Christian era and later. Zorik then explains why a hundred year gap occured in the dry wine production of Armenia, and he talks about the situation for wine as he found it in Armenia in the late 1990s.

Zorik explains his rationale for beginning his own winery in Armenia, and talks about the different winemaking regions of Armenia. He gives special emphasis to the area that he chose to base his production in, Vayots Dzor. He talks about the native grape family of that region, which is known as Areni, and his experiences with planting a new Areni vineyard. That is contrasted with his comments about a much older vineyard of Areni, which he also works with. Both vineyards are own-rooted, as phylloxera is not present in the region.

Zorik also talks about the amphora clay containers that housed wine in Armenia in ancient times, and which he uses today as well. He gives his explanation for why he chose to mature his Areni wine in amphora - known as Karas in Armenia - as opposed to wooden barriques. And he relates details about his search to find amphora that were already existing in Armenia and which he could use, as well as to develop production of new amphora there today. He further gives a summary of the drinking habits of his surrounding region in Armenia, and an outlook on what it is like working in Armenia today.

This episode also features commentary from:

Katherine Moore, Union Square Wines

Lee Campbell, Early Mountain Vineyards

Conrad Reddick, Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	And the I grew up in a family where wine and alcohol was not a part of our family culture.
0:23.0	Whereas food was important to our family and we did a lot of home entertaining
0:29.0	because we were not allowed in restaurant, the major important restaurants.
0:36.4	Even after I was in college, we were still not allowed.
0:40.7	That's Catherine Moore, the longtime sales general manager at Union Square Wines in Manhattan.
0:46.4	She was born in the 1940s and grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and what she is describing is racial segregation in a city with a long history of
0:54.7	housing discrimination. Catherine Moore is black and her family wasn't allowed to
0:59.6	eat in the fancier restaurants in her hometown. That unfair barrier continued in Baltimore through her adult years, but she found something
1:08.8	different when she traveled to Europe and was able to enjoy the sort of fine dining experiences that had
1:15.2	been denied to her previously.
1:18.7	And the breakthrough came in 1965 when I traveled to Europe for the first time with a small dance company.
1:28.1	We left England and went to Germany and there we were introduced to something more than Leipra Milch, which was the college
1:36.9	trend at the time. And from Kern we flew into Paris. When I first looked out over the wing through a
1:46.4	propeller by the way planes were props then and saw the Eiffel Tower I
1:52.2	thought I had come home.
1:54.0	And the first night we dined at Lisselect in Montparnasse and
2:01.0	that I fell in love.
2:04.6	French cuisine, French wines.
2:08.6	We made a side trip to the Lower Valley, to tour, and there I was introduced to Vouvra and some of the
2:17.2	Soviet Blanks of the region and I was smitten.
2:23.0	Not long after she first visited France,
2:26.6	Catherine Moore was invited to Ober duvalence house in Burgundy
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Levi Dalton, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Levi Dalton and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.