Voskehat

Armenia's « queen of grapes ». Voskehat — « golden seed » — is an ancient white of the high volcanic valleys of a country that lays claim, with Georgia, to the very origins of wine: the Areni-1 cave, the oldest known winery, was pressing grapes around 4100 BC. Late-ripening and thick-skinned, it holds its acidity at altitude.

It gives a textured, quietly nutty white — stone fruit, quince and a saline volcanic edge — whether fermented clean in steel or the old way in buried clay karasi (the Armenian cousin of the qvevri). After a Soviet century of bulk wine and brandy, a new generation has rebuilt it into Armenia's flagship white.