Ararat

"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.[citation needed] Ararat Brandy is not only popular in Armenia, but in many of the former states of the Soviet Union, chief among them Russia (where it's known under the name Armjanskij Konjak), Georgia, Ukraine and Belarus. In the Russian-speaking countries of the former Soviet Union the Armenian Brandy is marketed as cognac. 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".[1] The term "brandy" has never really caught on and the full name of such beverages is "cognac-style wine".

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.[3][4][5] Reportedly 400 bottles of Dvin were shipped to Churchill annually.[1][6] This brandy was named in honour of the ancient capital Dvin, and was first produced in 1943. On the other hand, the Churchill Centre and Museum in London never mentions any Armenian brandy, to say nothing of annual shipments, and states that Churchill's favorite brandy was Hine.