Reviving Armenia’s Ancient Wine Culture

My Latest in Paste Magazine:

Meet the Father and Daughter Reviving Armenia’s Ancient Wine Culture

by L.M. Archer

Father and daughter winemakers Vahe and Aimee Keushguerian claim fame for making what has been called “the world’s most dangerous wine” at their winery, Keush. The James Beard award-winning 2024 film Cup of Salvation chronicles their quest to make a taboo wine from secret Iranian vineyards. But this isn’t the Keushguerians’ first brush with danger. They also survived harvest during a war with neighboring Azerbaijan in 2020–all while spearheading Armenia’s ongoing wine revolution.

Context

For some context, Armenia’s wine culture dates back millennia. According to legend, Noah (of large wooden ark fame) planted vines on nearby Mt. Ararat, post-flood. More recently, archeologists discovered a winery cave dating back to circa 4,000 BCE. During World War I, genocide drove an Armenian diaspora abroad. Post-World War I, Soviets then ruled Armenia, dictating brandy, not wine production. However, after the Soviet collapse in the 1990s, many diasporan Armenians returned to reclaim their homeland, their culture and their winemaking.

Dynamic Duo

Among them was Vahe Keushguerian. An Armenian born in Syria and raised in Lebanon, Keushguerian later lived and made wine in Italy and the United States before visiting Armenia for the first time in 1997. After moving to Armenia permanently in the late 2000s, daughter Aimee joined him in 2015. Together, the Keushguerians’ efforts include founding Armenia’s first sparkling wine house, a wine startup incubator, a wine academy, a nursery for native grape varieties and a digital food and wine magazine. We sat down with this dynamic duo to discover what’s driving them to jumpstart Armenia’s modern wine industry.

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

L.M. Archer: Firstly, how has the movie (Cup of Salvation) impacted Armenian wine?

Vahe Keushguerian: Overall, it was a good entrance for people to get to know Armenia as a winemaking country in general. READ MORE HERE.

I’m honored to share this interview with the Keushguerians about Armenian wine with you here.

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