VINEYARD
Van Ardi has 9 hectares of fructifying vineyards, located in the foothills of the extinct volcano Aragats at the altitude of about 1 000 meters above the sea level. In 2016, they added a young vineyard with an area of 2,3 hectares, planted with vines of the Syrah on their own roots. The climate in the region is strictly continental. In winter, temperatures can drop down to -20 °C. Summer is hot and arid, the period without rains can last up to two months. Soils are poor, stony with predominance of volcanic rocks, loam. In vineyards selected grape varieties Haghtanak and Kangun, autochthons Kakhet and Areni are represented. Van Ardi vineyard is one of the few places outside the historical homeland of Areni, Vayots Dzor, where the variety gives interesting results. The vineyard of Syrah on its own roots is almost unique. The density of planting is 2400 vines per hectare. Age of vines 5-8 years.
WINERY
The winery is designed for the production of 40-50 thousand bottles of wine per year. Equipped with the necessary equipment for a small artist project: basket press, stainless tanks with temperature control, own bottling line. The winery is located on a vineyard, the harvest is manual, the harvested grapes are immediately transferred to the winery in 15 kg boxes for further wine production. The wines are kept in Karabakh oak barrels by the cooperage ≪Varanda≫ and in French barrels. In 2016, construction of new spaces of the winery was started.
TEAM
Ideologist, agronomist and winemaker of the project is Varuzhan Mouradyan. An economist by profession, he graduated from the school of oenologists at Davis School, and studied many winemaking techniques from books and personal experience, visiting wineries in California. The head of the project is supported in everything by his wife Anahit and daughter Ani, and two other daughters help as well. For individual projects of white wines, the winery attracted Josef Watzl, an oenologist from Germany, as a consultant.
On each bottle of wine «Van Ardi» is depicted the Sun God – Shivini from the pantheon of the gods of Urartu, and the name of the wine is translated from the ancient Armenian as «Sun over Van». Van is the capital of ancient Armenia and Urartu.
