Areni Winery (Armenia) – detailed description, address, tours for visitors, how to get there. Story about the production, specialty store, tourist reviews.
The small village of Areni, an object of pilgrimage for connoisseurs of vintage wines and unique architectural monuments, is located 120 km from Yerevan, on the left bank of the Arpa River in Vayots Dzor marz of Armenia. Since 2009, the village every year hosts the International Wine Festival, a large-scale cultural event dedicated to sampling young and aged local wines, in particular, the products of Areni Winery, established in 1994 on the basis of a small family business. The winery is located at the entrance of the village, and you can visit it for free: the owners of the winery usually lead a tour of the production facility, the cellar and the vineyard, describing in detail all the stages of production of the famous wine, exported to the CIS countries and Europe. At the end of the tour, guests are offered a tasting; some exclusive varieties can be purchased exclusively in the shop located on the territory of the factory.
What to see in “Areni” Winery
The winery is located in a small 2-story stone building, more reminiscent of a villa than a factory. The modest size of the winery can be explained by the fact that the harvesting of raw materials and the production of wines, as in the old days, is done by hand, which has a positive effect on the quality of the products.
At the moment the factory produces about 250 thousand bottles of wine annually, the plan is to increase production up to 300 thousand units a year.
The Areni Winery tasting room offers free tastings of fruit and berry red and white wines.
Pomegranate and apricot wines are especially popular among tourists. Quince, cherry, blackberry, raspberry and peach wines are most often purchased as gifts for acquaintances and colleagues: the bright taste, evoking memories of summer and vacation, gives incomparable pleasure.
The drinks are accompanied by free snacks: juicy fruits and berries, fragrant dried fruits, and nuts. For those who have spent long hours on the road and managed to get hungry there is a cafe on the second floor of the building, where you can not only taste dishes of Armenian cuisine, but also watch a demonstration video briefly telling about the main stages of wine making.
If you wish, you can visit the cellar with giant wooden barrels of ripening wine and racks of collectible beverages, the production workshop where the bottling process takes place, and the souvenir shop where you can buy authentic products by local craftsmen as a keepsake.
Practical information about “Areni” Winery
Address: Vayots Dzor Marz, v. Areni.
The plant can be reached from Yeghegnadzor or Yerevan by bus, cab or rented car on M-2 highway (coordinates of Areni village: 39°43.1478′; 45°10.7946′).
Opening hours: every day from 10:00 to 19:00 (Sunday is a day off). Entrance and wine tasting is free. The staff speaks Armenian, Russian and English.
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