A great landscape, south of the caucasus
Wine has been produced for ages in the Caucasus area. Actually it was one of the first places to produce wine in the world, the first wine production has been estimated in 6000 BC! Vines were so abundant that the population wasn’t big enough to harvest everything. Azerbaijan is very rich of archaeological sites, which show us the patrimony of this land, we haven’t visited one for now, but it should be the destination of our next day off. The latest discovery was just nearby Baku, a jar of a thick juice has been found. Indeed the first wines had nothing in common with our contemporary wines. Just like our neighbor, Georgia, wine used to be age in clayey jar. But the wine itself was very thick, tasted like honey, and people had to dilute it with water to drink it!
More than 450 different grapes have been cultivated throughout Azerbaijan. The land is still full of indigenous varietals such as White Shani, Derbendi, Nail, Bayanshire, Gamashara, Madrassa etc… and a lot of grapes that we never heard of. Some varietals known as Georgian varietals are also planted on the Azerbaijani soil, like Saperavi, which we tasted for you! (https://frenchiesinbaku.wordpress.com/2013/05/19/a-taste-of-local-wines/)
In Azerbaijan, wines from grapes are called “şərab”. A lot of different wines from different fruits are also produced, from pomegranate, mulberry, quince…
During the middle age, wine was perceived as a medicine, wine would be a good remedy against depression, anger, fever, bad mood, flue, cancer, aids, economic crisis, alien attacks… More seriously the main use of wine was to heal sick people and some books have been found presenting all the different good deed of wine consumption. Here is a scoop; we should call it Azeri Paradox instead of French paradox!
The USSR period was a tough time for Azerbaijani wine industry. The wine produced was very bad, in high quantity, with high alcohol degree. It was an alternative for the daily vodka, with one purpose: getting completely wasted. The hot climate of some Azerbaijani’s land was perfect to produce high quantity with high yields. The brandies were also very famous in the former Soviet Union, the most famous being the local “Kogniak”. (Any resemblance with another brandy in the world is purely coincidental).
It all ended up during the anti-alcohol campaign launched by Gorbachev. Azerbaijani vineyards producing bad quality and high quantity, it was one of the first targets at that time. And almost all the vines have been wrested. A lot of the wine culture and tradition of Azerbaijan has been destroyed during this period.
But things have changed since the independency of the country and the new politicy is to restore the patrimony of Azerbaijan and wine production is part of it. 37000 hectares of wine have been planted, and the government imposes low yields aiming a good quality.
Azerbaijan has a rich wine history and culture, partly destroyed by the USSR period. You can burn any land, wrest any vines, but you can’t take down a patrimony and a spirit. The purpose of Azerbaijanis wineries and our purpose today is to share our wine and its soul with the wine amateurs from the entire world…
FrenchiesinBaku 