TRUTHFUL WINE

Wine is an amazing drink. Its taste, colour and smell can kill the pain of sadness, boost the euphoria of any holiday, liven up the body and soul. Wine is also an ancient drink. Many countries and regions have traditionally grown grapes to make wine, but not all beverages could become so respected and acknowledged by connoisseurs as wine, thanks to its good quality and exquisite taste. Our guest today is Aygun Atayeva, a wine expert with more than 20 years of experience in the area, brand-ambassador, chief manager of marketing and sales of a famous Azerbaijani winemaking company. She will tell us a bit of the history of winemaking in Azerbaijan, its traditions and the present.

"Every country has alcoholic beverages that make them famous regionally or throughout the world. France and Georgia have wine and chacha, respectively. Russia has vodka, Great Britain is famous for sherry and port, Mexico for tequila. Raki and sake are also widely popular. What drinks, apart from tea, are the trademark of Azerbaijan?"

"Azerbaijan has long claimed to be the cradle of wine-making. Cultivation of grapes and making wine in South Caucasus, Atropatene and the north of the Zagros Mountains in modern Iran began as far back as in the Neolithic period, some 6,000-8,000 years ago. Then the traditions was brought to the Middle East. From there the grapes penetrated into Egypt and Greece, and only after several centuries into Europe. In other words, the most ancient vines originate from the region located on the territories of modern Azerbaijan and Georgia. Perhaps it will be impossible to put an end to disputes on the leadership in such an important area between the two neighbouring nations. However, it is not so important, as they did not exist in the Neolithic age anyway. Interestingly, Azerbaijan is undoubtedly part of the territory that gave birth to the traditions of viticulture!

"An, of course, Azerbaijan has a trademark drink. These include distillates (the basis of any wine) made from fruits and berries that grow in our country. They are produced from grapes and other fruit crops, including pears, cornel, white mulberries, quinces and plums. They are widely popular in Azerbaijan, with many connoisseurs travelling to various regions of the country to purchase fragrant fruit and berry beverages made from them."

"The eating culture is different for every nation. Is there a drinking culture in Azerbaijan?"

"There has always been a cult of food in Azerbaijan, the cult of homemade food. Thanks to a great variety of geographical landscapes in Azerbaijan, the most important treasure among them being the Caspian Sea, we have a very rich national cuisine. Because of favourable living conditions, different tribes and religious communities settled in Azerbaijan many years ago. The variety of food has eventually created the variety of drinks. Previously strong alcoholic drinks and sweet wines were traditionally used due to the abundance of food. Nowadays, the use of wines correlates with the region and the products we consume with it, like in Italy. We have a wine drinking culture. In the last 15 years Azerbaijan has made a great leap in reconstruction of winemaking traditions lost years ago. We have learned to distinguish wines depending on districts they are grown: now there are wines from Ismayilly, Gabala, Shamakhy. These are different wines because of the specific land properties, the climate that greatly influences the final taste of grapes. There is a huge global demand for natural wines produced the traditional way. Chardonnay, Cabernet, Merlot and so on are grape varieties that grow everywhere, but it is the location they are cultivated that gives wines made from them that unique flavour.

"Over the past five years, the wine culture has taken a big step forward. Reluctant to sell Azerbaijani wines previously, now we can see a growing number of wine boutiques in the country! They are both budget-friendly and tasty, and people can choose wines made of certain sorts of grapes! In 2019, Shamakhy hosted the first Azerbaijani Wine Festival attended by 15 companies. In two days, the participants learned about wines what they did not know about. There are 26 wine companies in Azerbaijan, with the number of vineyards growing every year. We periodically become winners and receive gold medals at major exhibitions in Düsseldorf, London, Bordeaux, Hong Kong and other cities around the world."

"You said that we once lost our wine culture, and I think I know which period you had in mind. What happened to wine production in Azerbaijan during the Soviet period?"

"At that time Azerbaijan had 175,000 hectares of vineyards, which is quite a lot. The annual planned increase was 5,000 hectares. Well, some vineyards were targeting quantity rather than quality, and there was a specific varietal selection, etc. We cannot say the Soviet Union was an outstanding phenomenon in terms of winemaking, but there were good, decent wines comparable to the Western ones.

"But it all ended on May 16, 1985, when Gorbachev introduced the Prohibition. It resulted in huge volumes of counterfeit products that caused numerous deaths. In other words, the Soviet Prohibition was definitely a crime against its own people.

"Large territories under vineyards became ruins. But some of the republics realised that the Soviet Union was going to collapse and were not so aggressive in terms of eliminating the cultivated lands, like Georgia and Moldova. Azerbaijan, however, has suffered a lot: the industry was almost completely destroyed both technically and scientifically.

"Formally, the Prohibition has never been abolished; the country in which it was adopted simply ceased to exist. This is why in 1991 there seemed to be no prohibition, but there was no money either, the industry had collapsed over these six years, and nobody cared about wine.

"For me, new winemaking traditions in Azerbaijan were born in 2005-2006. That is when the first winery producing high-quality, full-cycle wines appeared. By the way, there were no full-cycle wineries in the Soviet Union, only primary and secondary ones.

"Basically, full-cycle winemaking means a château, where the grapes are planted, grown, harvested, pressed, vinified (the process of turning grapes into wine) and bottled. In the Soviet Union only the planting, growing, pressing and vinifying were available. But this is the primary cycle, the production of wine material. And since nobody cared about the final product, the only purpose was to get as much of this material as possible. So the quality has always suffered. The secondary production plant would get the wine material, with their experts wondering what to make out of it.

"Today there are over 15,000 hectares of vineyards in Azerbaijan.

"A big plus is that each one started from scratch, meaning there is state-of-the-art equipment at production facilities. It is virtually impossible to find a winery with old equipment. In Georgia, almost all winemaking facilities are fifty years old. In Azerbaijan, there is a feeling of visiting a top winery in France and Italy. Almost all the cellars have also been upgraded."

"What were our traditions before the Soviet Prohibition? How long is the history of winemaking in Azerbaijan. Has the religious factor influenced the development of winemaking in the country?"

"Historically, Goygol, Shamakhy and Gabala have been known for wine-making in Azerbaijan. In fact, the winemaking tradition has been available since the Zoroastrian times. In the Islamic era, winemaking waned, but we have always had vineyards. Grapes are used not only for wine production, but also for making abgora and dry raisins—one of the main components of traditional Azerbaijani pilaf. In 1860, German specialists visited Azerbaijan to develop agriculture in the former South Caucasian province of the Russian Empire. Soon they built a winery and two brandy factories in Goygol. Products from these facilities were even sent to Germany to take part in an exhibition. So, the official recognition of this fact took place in 1860. In 1960-70s, with the support of Heydar Aliyev, vine plantations started to increase because he, as a strategist and patriot of Azerbaijan, realised that this was our wealth too, not only oil and cotton. Shortly after, there were a great number of unique sorts of grapes growing in the country: Madrasa, Bayan Shira, Tabrizli. We had around 200 authentic local sorts of grapes. As for the religious factor, although we are a Muslim country, we are also a secular country, and no one is forcing or forbidding anyone to drink alcohol."

"What types of wine made Azerbaijan famous 50 years ago?"

"Firstly, these are our potent wines—our wealth and history. Back in the 1970-1990s people visiting Azerbaijan would ask for Aghdam, Kurdamir, Alabashly. Potent wines are made of grapes with a lot of sugar content and more alcohol. Not only are such wines sweets, but also they taste like a typical portwine. People enjoyed drinking them. The Soviet Union was like a big cooperative. If one republic produced something, the other 14 and the countries of the socialist camp knew about it. Therefore, Aghdam was known from Chukotka to Kazakhstan. Everyone knew the Red October sweets, used the same fridges and TV sets and drank Aghdam. It was a kind of marketing for us. Then, apart from fortified wines, we had various sorts of cognacs and sparkling wines, such as the famous Pearl of Azerbaijan."

"As to price and quality, is high price always a sign of high quality wine products? Is it possible to buy good inexpensive wine?"

"There are mass consumption products for various price ranging from ₼4 and above. But this does not mean they are made from wine powder. In fact, it is very difficult to sublimate a wine product. It is like making dried wine powder from wine, like dried milk; it is not easy. Then you have to dilute it with water and alcohol, and it will be three times more expensive than growing grapes and making wine from them. So I can say confidently that there is no need to be afraid of low prices. Yes, technology is different, someone buys ready-made wine products for ₼1.5 per kilogramme, while some companies have their own vineyards, growing and taking care of each berry and keeping them in special oak barrels. Then there are those who roast so-called chips and throw them into wine tuns, which makes the wine tasting like old noble wine after a week. Of course, this is wrong and every renowned winemaker will not do that. Oak barrels are expensive indeed, and it affects the value of the wine too. An average 225-litre barrel costs around €1,000. And you can only use it for up to four years. In other words, a winemaker must put the cost of a barrel on top of a litre of wine. There is a segment of cheap wines, but this does not mean they are of poor quality, they are made for mass consumption. The more expensive ones are produced in limited quantities, and depending on the amount of effort and money spent on producing them, the price will be high. For example, many people compare some wine brought from Spain with our wine and wonder why a Spanish wine in a beautiful bottle and label is cheaper than ours. But the bottle and label has nothing to do with wine if you throw them away after consuming it. What matters is what's inside the bottle."

"Some often complain about feeling dizziness, headaches and nausea after a big meal with a lot of alcoholic beverages. Is it because of drinking cheap wine only?"

"Knowing your measure can be helpful to spare yourself all these malign symptoms. This applies to everything. If you eat more food your body can afford, you will feel heaviness, discomfort. But if you eat as much as you need to live, you will be fine. It's the same with wine. A glass of red wine is very healthy. It is one of the few products that are good for our vascular system: it gets rid of cholesterol plaques and promotes good blood flow. It is no coincidence that grapes are used to make creams - the resveratrol in grapes has an incredible rejuvenating effect. There are also medicines made from grape seeds, all kinds of tinctures and ointments. Red grapes have a huge number of useful properties. We can occasionally hear complaints about the quality of wine. I admit that they can have some side-effects on the body, causing poisoning. Like a hangover, which is poisoning from an alcoholic product consumed too much. It is important to consume moderately. During extended feasts, I usually drink white wine, not even the carbonated wine. Because gases contribute to the rapid absorption of alcohol by the body. White wine is very light and mild and it goes well with food. And forget about that stereotype of white and red wines being good only with white and red meat, respectively. Drink whatever wine you like, whatever tastes good for you with the type of food you're eating. You can choose rose wines, which, by the way, is a golden mean between white and red wines. Apart from very negative effects of strong alcoholic beverages, we wrongly combine food and alcohol. For example, red wines do not like mayonnaise. But we traditionally have salads with high mayonnaise content on the table, which in combination with red wine leads to a natural fermentation process. Our people is very fond of semi-sweet wines, but they do not go well with food at all. This is how we mix inappropriate food with wine and then complain about the wine quality. But no one thinks that wine should be drunk properly. Italians, Spaniards and the French have no such problems because they combine food and drink in the right way. Nobody drinks whisky or cognac with food, it's unnatural. It is true that they will drink red wine with  meat, but they'll drink a glass of wine only, not 25 glasses. Only to aid digestion, not to get drunk."

"How to choose the right wine? What do we have to pay attention to? Can the visual characteristics of a wine bottle (cork, bottle shape, label) tell us about the content?"

"To avoid mistakes, you need to drop a visit to specialised shops where you will be given the right information. But the most important tool in choosing a wine is the label, sort of its passport, which gives as much detailed information as possible. It tells you the alcohol content of the wine, the year the crop was harvested, the type of grapes, whether or not it was aged in an oak barrel. It might even say at what room temperature it was made, and advise how it should be served and with what. It is true that this information is written in very small print, but be patient reading it. Why is this information so important? Because every winemaker makes wine in his own way, and there are many factors that influence the taste of wine. But the most important one is the soil. All producers have the same equipment, have received the same training, but everyone has a secret: it is the soil that cannot be duplicated. It is the soil that gives the grapes that unique flavour and aroma.

"If you buy wine in a supermarket, examine the bottle carefully. Check the colour and transparency of the wine. If it is white, check if it has any sludge or clouding inside. If it does, you should definitely not take the wine. It's also important to check how tightly the cork is sitting on top of the bottle. If it is even slightly raised, it means that fermentation is going on in the bottle, or that the wine has not been stored properly, or that the level of the wine inside the bottle is lower than it should be. Typically, a distance between the cork and the top of wine equals the width of your two fingers. After all, there is a bar code that will tell you absolutely everything about the product, including consumer reviews."