500 BOTTLES EXPORTED ANNUALLY FROM ARMENIA

Lragir.am
06 June 06

By the end of this year the law on wine will have been adopted. The
chair of the Association of Winemakers of Armenia Avag Harutiunyan
presented how the Armenian viticulture could benefit from it and how
satisfied the winemakers could be.

“We have presented a conceptual package. So far this branch has been
managed or guided by the Soviet standards, whereas Europe adopted
the law we have just introduced as long ago as 1909. For you to
understand what this is, let us try to realize the difference between
these two big policies. The personage of Celentano from a famous
film tells the place and time when the wine was produced. This is
a European approach. God created every area with its peculiarities,
and the wine of every area is different. The Soviet ideology says:
collective economy, collective vineyards, collective wine, and
everything is mixed up. Now we are trying to adopt the idea of wines
with geographical origin, i.e. the European approach. Common wine
will be produced in Armenia as well, which can be made of grapes
grown and bottled anywhere.”

“Today 500 thousand bottles are annually exported from Armenia.

We can export 5 million bottles without the quality affected. But
look what may happen above 5 million bottles. If the law is adopted,
in the production of common wines we may import wines and mix with
our wine; with a ratio standing at 49 to 51 it will be considered
Armenian wine. We can buy good wine from Argentina at 10 cents, Spain
for 20 cents, Italy for up to 40 cents, France for up to 50 cents,
Moldavia up to 60 cents, Georgia for 1 dollar, and mix with our wine.

Armenia may follow this path on the condition that corruption and
subjectivity are reduced to zero. “