Yes, that’s right! We hosted an Armenian wine dinner. I can hear the usual questions like “Where is it?” and “They make wine there?” It’s a little country in between Russia, Georgia, Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan, and they have been making wine since about 400 BC. Nowadays, they are making some mighty fine high-quality wine. I’m going to tell you all about the Armenian wines we poured right here in our Southwest Florida home, the food we prepared in our kitchens to serve with it and show you the pictures. First, here is a little background as to how we got transported to Armenia…………….
I’ve been to plenty of wine dinner and tasting events during my “career” as a wine lover, where wine has been poured from numerous wine regions and countries – the usual California, Oregon and Washington plus France and Italy. And sometimes Spain, Portugal and Germany plus the Southern Continental countries of Argentina, Chile, Argentina and New Zealand. Sorry, I know I left out a lot of great wine regions.
The culinary part of each event has usually (hopefully!) been carefully thought out by someone who obviously understands the nuances of pairing food with wine. And believe me, as someone who has paired numerous wine tastings and dinners with food that will make both elements shine and look like superstars, IT IS NOT EASY!!!! My professional life was in the world of food and food management. I think the wine part came along as a natural progression, and I didn’t get paid for that part of it! I’ve done all of my wine research and wine pairing dinners because I really really love to do it. This is my new life beyond paid working. And the very best part? Sharing with friends, especially those who also appreciate it!
Another quite unexpected challenge for me right now was to “scale back” on the size of our wine dinners due to the current situation that calls for extra safe practices. Our goal is (and has always been) to keep us and our guests safe and healthy.
Let’s get down to the wine dinner at hand – AN ARMENIAN ADVENTURE: “From Ararat to Areni”. I watched some “live” internet interviews with Armenian wine makers hosted by Charine Tan and Matthew Horkey of “Exotic Wine Travel”, and the winemakers sounded so passionate about their Armenian wines; not to mention they had some of the best winemaking consultants in the world. I really knew very little about Armenian wine at the time except for what I had read in Charine and Matthew’s book “Uncorking the Caucasus: Wines from Turkey, Armenia and Georgia”. Since I had nothing else going on to capture my interest – after all we were in the middle of a world-wide pandemic and stay-at-home orders here in Florida – devoting some major time to researching Armenia and even better, searching out and buying some of their wines suddenly seemed very important to me. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy so they say, and it kept me busy for several months. The good news is that not only did I learn about Armenia, the grapes, wines and winemakers, but I successfully sourced some of those wines. And the wines even showed up at my front door! Now this was serious as I knew the next step was learning about Armenian cuisine and selecting some foods that would showcase these very deserving wines. After all, they had travelled a long way from the mountains and plains of Armenia and deserved to show off their best side here in Florida.
If you would like to learn more about those grapes and wines, here is the link to my last article “An Armenian Adventure: From Ararat to Areni” https://www.forkandcorkdivine.com/?p=3735
Here is the final result of my menu planning and wine pairing along with the pictures of our amazingly delicious food, the wines and oh yes indeed those wines were worth every bit of effort that went into this event!
Armenian cuisine reflects a cuisine similar to many countries in the Caucasus area, but each country – and quite often each region within each country – has their own regional differences. You often hear people say that every grandmother puts their own twist on regional cooking, and that is also true here in Armenia. Lamb, pork, eggplant and lavash bread are basic to Armenia as is bulgur, lots of herbs (especially fresh) , legumes, nuts and fresh and dried fruits like apricots, pomegranates and lemons. Cheese and yogurt are also staples and eaten daily. These are just a few of the traditional foods that one would expect to find while visiting Armenia. And then there is the local “street food” that you should try to experience when visiting a country.
Since we only had a four course dinner plus some sweets to go with our brandy, it was a bit of a challenge to serve menu items that made a rounded menu, showcased our wines, and were also foods that we could source the ingredients for and prepare. Never one to miss out on a good challenge, I do think we accomplished our objectives! Please enjoy the menu and pictures.
An Armenian Adventure
Appetizers
I always enjoy planning and serving the appetizer course. It sets the tone for the rest of your meal and should showcase the country as much as possible. It also really helps if your dinner guests like everything you serve in this course. We want to get that positive vibe going!!!!
Cheese is a staple and one of the best known is Chechil, or Armenian string cheese. It’s a white cheese typically made from goat or sheep milk, comes studded with tiny little black seeds called nigella seeds, and is all wound up in a thick circular braid. It’s similar to fresh mozzarella but saltier. To serve it, I had to unbraid it and pull apart all of those strings of cheese. This was one of those items that I had to source on the internet. A company called Parthenon Foods, a European market in Wisconsin, was quite happy to sell me their products! Goat cheese is also quite popular, but I opted to shop my local supermarket.
Bastirma can be spelled many ways as most of the language there depends upon which country you may have originated from, but it is lovingly, I’m sure, referred to as Armenian beef jerky. It is a highly seasoned, air-dried cured beef found in Armenia, Turkey, Greece and many other countries in this part of the world. It’s very similar to Italian bresaola and may be served as a sandwich, on top of pizza, with eggs, or just about any way you might also serve pastrami or prosciutto. I opted to add it to my appetizer plate simply sliced along with the cheeses. Parthenon Foods came through by shipping me a little package of it. It came sliced so thin, that it was difficult even to divide the individual slices. And yes, it is very salty!!!
Eggplant was a MUST to appear somewhere in this menu, and when I found beautiful pictures of Armenian rolled eggplant salad, I knew it absolutely had to be on this appetizer plate. Eggplant is served in many ways in Armenia, but this version called for vertically and thinly slicing eggplant, then frying it and spreading on a filling of sour cream, yogurt, chopped walnuts and garlic onto each browned slice. Then roll each slice up into a little “rollatini”, arrange on a serving plate, and garnish with beautiful crunchy pomegranate seeds and some fresh chopped dill. I served these gorgeous little rolls at room temperature, and they were delicious!
Since I happened to have some pomegranate molasses (more to come about that later!), I decided not to serve plain old olives and went for Persian style. It seems if you add finely chopped walnuts, garlic, mint and pomegranate molasses to your olives – green preferred – you have created Persian olives. They were full of flavor, but I really think it is an acquired taste!
Last up with the appetizer round, but not at all least, was LAVASH. No visit to Armenian food would ever be complete without lavash bread. It is so important that I even bought a cookbook called “Lavash” by Kate Leahy, John Lee and Ara Zada published in 2019. In fact lavash was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in 2014. I had difficulty locating authentic lavash locally, thought about buying it on the internet, then studied several recipes before finally deciding “I can do this!”. I spent two afternoons trying my hand at lavash-making and hoping that I might end up with something not too embarrassing to serve our guests. Lavash is a thin unleavened flatbread typically baked in a very hot oven and eaten in all of the countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey. Some people say it originated in Armenia and others say probably Iran. And of course it’s impossible to decide who made it first! The two recipes I tried my hand at were quite different, but the second one actually looked like the pictures on the recipe. I added sumac, black sesame seeds and sea salt to this one, so it even had some taste to it. I will venture to make lavash again some day, but not for quite a while!
Armenian String Cheese
Herbed Goat Cheese
Bastirma
Armenian Rolled Eggplant Salad
Persian Olives
Lavash Crackers Lavash Bread
Armenian Rolled Eggplant Salad
My lavash baking in the oven
Karas Extra Brut NV, Armavir, Armenia (100% Rkatsiteli)
Karas Sparkling is generally made from a blend of Colombard, Folle Blanche and Kangun however the sparkling we recently were able to purchase was made from 100% Rkatsiteli according to the label. It was light yellow in color with delicate and elegant bubbles displaying citric and fresh aromas with notes of toasted bread. The grapes were hand harvested, pressed and decanted for 24 hours, then fermented at 14-16 degrees C for 20 days. The second fermentation took place in special pressure tanks for 30 days. We have tasted non-sparkling Rkatsiteli before and enjoyed it, so we were not surprised that it also made a good sparkling. We would really have enjoyed tasting that blend including Kangun. Maybe another time.
Karas is a fairly new winery compared to the rest of the country. It’s located in the Ararat Valley in the west of the Armavir Region. The owners left Armenia many years ago choosing to live in Argentina where they own a successful premium vineyard property in Patagonia. Now they are also making wine sustainably using old family traditions plus their new modern technology while Mount Ararat watches over them in Armenia. Their consultant winemaker is the famous Michel Rolland from Bordeaux, France.
First
Armenia is a mountainous landlocked country, and even though they do serve quite a bit of fish there, a lake trout would probably have been ideal. However my internet search gave me a recipe for pomegranate glazed salmon which sounded like a seafood dish my guests would really enjoy. After all we had to have pomegranates somewhere in our menu! Of course even the preparation of this salmon dish could not go without challenges! The glaze called for pomegranate molasses – another specialty item to conquer! I took the easy way out and made my own from a very simple recipe of cooking down pomegranate juice, sugar and lemon. Perfect! The salmon was marinated in soy and ginger based citrus juices for about an hour, then brushed with the pomegranate glaze and broiled. Easy!
I decided to serve this as a room temperature salad course and include another Armenian staple – bulgur. One of my foodie friends took on the challenge of making “eech” for us. Eech is an Armenian bulgur salad that’s a mixture of bulgur, onions, tomato paste, parsley and red pepper. This version called for red pepper paste (that’s gojuchang at our house), and the finished salad was ever so tasty. The glazed salmon and eech looked beautiful on a bed of lettuce garnished with fresh blueberries, strawberries, scallions and of course some pomegranate seeds. It was a culinary work of art!
Pomegranate-Glazed Salmon on Eech (Armenian Bulgur Salad)
2017 Karas Classic White, Armavir
(Kangun 50%, Chardonnay 40% and Viognier 20%)
The Karas white blend gave us a taste of Kangun plus Chardonnay and Viognier. It was yellow in the glass with subtle shades of green, aromas of pear, peach and pineapple; it was floral and spicy on the palate with a fairly long finish and it paired perfectly with our pomegranate-glazed salmon, eech bulgur salad, fresh berries and pomegranate seeds.
Second
No visit to Armenian cuisine (whether actually in Armenia or at our house!) would be complete with an Armenian version of “fast food”, “street food” or “comfort food”. It seems that many cultures have their own version of pizza and this is it! Whether you call it lahmajoon or lahmacun, you will get a a very thin crust slice of whole pizza shape with a very very spicy ground meat topping that gets served with a splash of lemon juice and maybe some parsley. To eat it in true Armenian fast food style, you fold it over in quarters and eat it with your fingers. The crust has to be soft and foldable, so Chuck made our Armenian pizza with very soft tortilla shells as recommended in a recipe. The ground meat mixture (can be lamb or beef) is definitely spicy with black pepper, red pepper flakes, cayenne and Aleppo pepper if you have some. Notice I did not mention cheese!
Lahmajoon/Lahmacun (Armenian Pizza)
2016 Karas Classic Red Blend, Armavir
(Syrah 35%, Cot 35%, Cabernet Franc 20%, Tannat 10%)
The Karas red blend was quite a blend but one that we thoroughly enjoyed! The grapes were hand harvested then cold macerated and followed by fermentation at 26-28 degrees C for 20 days. The malolactic fermentation took place in tanks. It was elegant with good acidity, sweet tannins, fruity aromas and was easy to drink especially paired with our Armenian pizza.
Third
The fact that there would be some type of kebab on our Armenian menu was definitely a given! Lula, shish, ground meat, whole meat, lamb, beef, chicken, pork …………so many variations. Going with our production limitations, we opted for lamb and vegetable skewers cooked on the grill pan of our gas stovetop. Chuck bought some gorgeous bite-size boneless leg of lamb chunks from our local Mario’s meat department, marinated them overnight in olive oil, lemon juice, herbs and spices. He also prepared some boneless chicken breast as an option. On the day of service, Chuck gave the meat and beautiful mushrooms, onions and peppers a first cook on the stove top grill basting them with the marinade while cooking. Next he threaded everything on our longest metal skewers and gave them a final searing on the stove top just before service.
Pilaf is a common dish in Armenian cuisine. It’s a seasoned rice, bulgur or other grain that you will often be served with lamb or beef. Many Armenian recipes add vermicelli or orzo to be cooked with the rice, and I opted to add vermicelli with some golden raisins and almonds with some green peas thrown in for some needed color. The result was a beautiful bowl of pilaf topped with a colorful shish kebab.
Armenian Shish Kebab and Rice Pilaf
Marinated lamb or chicken broiled with onions, peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes
Accompanied by Armenian rice pilaf with raisins and almonds
2017 Zorah Karasi Areni Noir (100% Areni), Vayots Dzor
The Zorah Karasi Areni was aged in the traditional large, clay amphorae (also called karasi) for about 12 months. Zorah’s Karasi wines are a tribute to the ancient winemaking traditions of their ancestors. The wine was 100% Areni grapes that were grown at 1400 meters a.s.l. in sandy soil, rich in limestone and large stones. It was bright ruby red with very complex aromas of red fruits, lightly spiced with elegant toasted notes on the nose; then full bodied and well balanced with very silky ripe tannins. We absolutely loved the Areni Noir wine. Areni Noir are red grapes indigenous to the Vayots Dzor region from the famous little town named Areni in southern Armenia. They make medium to light bodied known for cherries and spice.
Zorik Gharibian, Zorah’s owner, was quite successful in the Milan, Italy fashion industry before deciding to come back to his native Armenia and make wine. He and his wife began Zorah in the village of Rind in the Areni region in 1998 with the goals of making wine from native grapes, aging it in amphorae and having the credentials of high powered winemaking consultants. We think they succeeded! The vineyards are way up at 4500 feet a.s.l. with a mix of volcanic and sedimentary rock, sandy soil rich in limestone in an area that is phylloxerra-free. The wines are aged for around 12 months in the karas of varying sizes – some are buried in the ground while others are above the ground each giving a unique quality to the wine. Zorah Wines are highly acclaimed and if you can find a bottle, it will cost at least $35, well worth every penny! And if you don’t believe me, check out the Bloomberg list of top wines for 2012 – a Zorah Karasi Areni was one of the top 10 way back then.
2016 Yacoubian-Hobbs “Sarpina” Areni, Vayots Dzor
All we could say after drinking that Zorah Areni and then this Yacoubian-Hobbs Sarpina Areni was “WOW”. It was almost unbelievable how much we enjoyed these wines!
Viken Yacoubian drank a Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir back in 2003 and liked it so much that eventually the two of them decided to make wine together in Armenia. They officially became partners in 2008, settled on the Vayots Dzor region almost right across from the now famous Areni-1 cave complex where winemaking evidence was found dating back over 6,000 years. Their vineyards are 1200 meters high up in the rocky volcanic and limestone soils where they grow and produce their now world-famous wines. The Areni wines are aged in French oak and produced in very small case lots. Believe me, if you get a chance to buy one or at least taste it, please please do!. The Sarpina is named for the posts used to train the vines which is recorded in Armenian agricultural history books. Our bottle of 2016 Sarpina Areni was quite complex with intense aromatics of ripe red cherries, black plums and dried flowers, followed up by vanilla, cinnamon and chocolate. It was elegant, full of velvety tannins and a long finish. It was exquisite.
ArArAt Brandy and Sweets
I never set out to feature and serve brandy at this dinner, but the more I learned about Armenia, the grapes and wines – and especially the importance of Armenian brandy – it became mandatory that I source a bottle of brandy and serve it with some recommended pairings. I was so glad that I did, because not only did our desserts get rave reviews, but this 10 year old Ararat brandy made by the Yerevan Brandy Company won the surprise grand prize for the night.
Brandy has probably been made in Armenia since the 12th century, but we do know that when Shustov and Sons took their Armenian brandy to the 1900 Universal Expo of Paris, they beat out Cognac in a blind tasting! This was so unheard of that they earned the right to call their brandy “Cognac”; however, just like Champagne that right ended. Yes, “Cognac” must come from the French commune of Cognac in Southwest France. Shustov went on to become the Yerevan Brandy Company which is Armenia’s largest brandy producer today. There are more brandy distillers per capita in Yerevan than any other city in the world. Yerevan Brandy was purchased in 1999 by the French company Pernod Ricard. Products are labeled and marketed as “ArArAt”.
This particular 10 year old brandy was everything promised in the tasting notes: rich mahogany color, dark fruit on the nose with exotic tropical spices and notes of vanilla and butterscotch. On the palate, we enjoyed the creamy texture and notes of figs, apricots, raisins and pears. It was a long enjoyable finish with cinnamon and toasty oak. Just outstanding!!! My internet research recommended everything that we served to pair with it – dark chocolate, Camembert and dried figs and apricots dipped in more dark chocolate. But the star in the crown was my foodie friend’s homemade Armenian orange cake that was ever so tasty with that brandy. I have a new respect for brandy aficionados. And orange cake bakers around the world!
Armenian Orange Cake
Chocolate Dipt Dried Figs and Apricots
Dark Chocolate Truffles
Camembert
Ararat 10 Yr Akhtamar Brandy by the Yerevan Brandy Company
And so it was that five outstanding Armenian wines and a 10 year old Armenian brandy were enjoyed with our forkandcorkdivine version of Armenian cuisine. In my opinion the wines were all worthy of sourcing and serving, and I am quite sure our guests agreed with me. We liked our three wines made by Karas – a sparkling, a white and a red blend – but unfortunately their reserve wine of 100% Areni was unavailable at the time of my wine shipment. Of course that was the one I especially wanted to serve. The Zorah Karasi Areni Noir and the Yacoubian-Hobbs Sarpina Areni were both outstanding, and I would happily drink them anytime! Our Armenian food was quite delicious and showcased those wines just as I had hoped. Once again I must thank our foodie winelover friends who support me in making these wine adventures come to reality even if they are a bit out of the normal wine drinking experience. That is my goal! Who knows where our next adventure will take us?
Forkandcorkdivine.com 6/30/2020
