Armenia

Armenia has the longest documented history of any wine country and, until recently, almost no wine industry. The Areni-1 cave was excavated in 2007 and 2010 and produced a clay treading floor, a vat, cups and pips of domesticated Vitis vinifera, dated to around 6,100 years ago. Nothing older has been found anywhere.

What broke the line was the Soviet division of labour. Georgia was assigned wine and Armenia was assigned brandy, so the vineyard was replanted for distillation and the cellars were built for it. Ararat brandy is still the country's best known drink. Table wine barely existed as a category until private producers began bottling it in the years around 2010.

The revival is built on native grapes, which is its strength. Areni is the red: pale, high in acid, aromatic, with tannin that is present without being heavy, grown at 1,400 metres and above in Vayots Dzor. Voskehat is the serious white. Khndoghni, also called Sireni, gives a darker and denser red in the south east. Kangun is the workhorse white bred in the Soviet years.

Altitude is the defining fact. Most vineyards sit between 1,000 and 1,700 metres, which is why fruit picked in a hot continental summer still arrives with acid intact. Some of the old vines are ungrafted, because phylloxera never took hold.