The Armenia & Beyond team organised a Wine discovery day to 2 wineries and to the Armenian Alphabet to take some selfies with the 39 letters of our alphabet!

We left Yerevan and headed out towards our first stop

THE ARMENIAN ALPHABET MONUMENT

The Armenian Alphabet Monument, also known as Alphabet Park or Alphabet Alley, is an open-air memorial located in Artashavan village on the eastern slopes of Mount Aragats in Armenia’s Aragatsotn region. 

Thomas found his letter and somehow climbed it LOL love this shot!

Constructed in 2005 to commemorate the 1600th anniversary of the Armenian alphabet’s creation, the site features 39 massive stone sculptures representing each letter of the Armenian alphabet, carved from local tuff stone

Elena and Sona exploring the 2m high letters

When Mesrop Mashtots created the alphabet, Armenia was caught between the Byzantine and Persian Empires. Having its own writing system allowed Armenians to translate the Bible, educate people in their own language, and preserve their culture for over 1,600 years.

We then headed over to…

VAN ARDI WINERY

Van Ardi is recognized as Armenia’s first boutique winery and a key driver in the country’s modern wine renaissance. 
 Founded in 2008 by Varuzhan Mouradian and his family, the winery was born from a decision to leave their lives in Los Angeles and return to Armenia to pursue a passion for viticulture and winemaking.

We headed into the winery and we were the only ones there so enjoed the serene atmosphere
Our awesome group!

It was so hot we had to use the umbrellas supplied to protect ourselves

We had a tour organised and headed towards the bell tower and where they keep the precious wines!
We learnt that they play Gregorian chant music here to the wines and you are not allowed to swear or think bad thoughts…

Also, there are 300-400 indigenous grapes and what was interesting was that the Soviet union didnt allow them to grow wine, only brandy at the time

Also, I love how they experiment! they are trying out a new wine in basalt rock (middle of photo) and has been aging for a year now to see how it will come out

We each had a go ringing the bell of the winery tower
We then sat down for our lunch under the tent where it was nice and cool
Cheersing to being alive and enjoying the moment!

Everyone was enjoying themselves and having awesome time

We all had some lovely food and made sure our bellies were full while having so much wine!

Enjoying ourselves at Van Ardi Winery
After a good feed and a lot of wine, we jumped back onto the bus a little bit more “happy” than before

ARMENIA WINE FACTORY & MUSEUM

The Armenia Wine Factory traces its commercial origins to 2008 (with some sources citing a 2006 founding), established by the Vardanyan and Mkrtchyan families to merge 6,000 years of Armenian viticultural heritage with modern international technologies. Located in Sasunik, Aragatsotn province, the factory produces 12 million bottles annually and serves as the operator for the Wine History Museum of Armenia, which opened in 2017 with support from the Ministry of Culture. 

…and headed towards the Armenian Wine Factory & Museum – just a short distance away
It was HOT and humid so any which way to keep cool the guys did! lol loved these guys sense of humour
Armenia Wine Museum and Factory
The red tuff stone buildings stand out in this area
We headed down into the cool caverns of the factory and into the museum underground
We were shown around some artefacts and learnt about wines and how the winery came to be

There is so much history

We walked through the history of Armenian winemaking, rich in centuries-old traditions of growing grapes and making wine, has matured over the years.

We were told the Archaeological monuments, bibliographic, and ethnographic data became the basis for creating the Museum of Winemaking History in Armenia.
This one was cool! There were little hologram men walking around this miniature building
Taste testing time in the tunnels!

filling our glasses with a little vial from a barrell

Dancing in the cellar with the beautiful relaxing music that was playing… it really was relaxing and made us all feel good
We then went upstairs and had 3 more taste testing with some nice wines
Then into the bus and dancing our way home to armenian music!
Back to Yerevan around 7pm all happy and full of wine 🙂

LOVED this tour and it was the people that made it! Such an awesome awesome group of different ages and locations and we all had a fun day together, eating and drinking, singing and enjoying some of what Armenia wineries had to offer…

4AUG26