Zorah Sireni 2019

Zorah Sireni

Region: Yeghegnadzor, Vayots Dzor, Armenia

Vintage: 2019

Bottle size: 75cl

Grape:  80% Sireni 20% Ararati

ABV: 13.5%

While the Sireni produces a full bodied wine with grippy tannins and notes of black fruits, pomegranate and liquorice, the Ararati lifts the wine giving it vitality and complexity.

Indigenous to the temperate Artsakh region (to the North East of Vayots Dzor, on the border with Azerbaijan) Sireni is a mid- ripening red grape variety. Grapes have compact bunches with very dark berries. It is resistant to summer drought but sensitive to cold winter temperatures. Sireni is sourced from vineyards at 400 meters above sea level on clay sedimentary soils. The vineyards are dry farmed with no irrigation. The white Ararati takes its name from Armenia’s sacred Mountain Ararat. It is an indigenous white grape variety and grows well in the highlands of Vayotz Dzor. It has large juicy greenish, yellow berries. It is late ripening and resistant to disease. The Ararati grapes are sourced from the highlands of Vayotz Dzor at elevations of 1300 meters above sea level. Despite its high potential this variety is on the verge of extinction. The grapes are gathered from rows of 30 to 40 year-old vines in the surroundings of the Zorah estate.

In 2006, Zorik Gharibian planted a six-hectare vineyard in Armenia’s Yeghegnadzor Valley, under the guidance of Italian viticulturist Stefano Bartolomei. Here, the indigenous Areni grape variety thrives at an elevation of 1,370 metres, close to Mount Ararat and just two kilometres from one of the world's oldest wineries, dating back 6,100 years. The vineyard is also ungrafted, as phylloxera has never reached this remote area of Armenia. It was from these vines that the Zorah project was born.

https://www.zorahwines.com