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Ex-mafia boss hopes to sell his new wine in UK as he says 'there's nothing bootleg'
Michael Franzese was known as the 'Yuppie Don' during his time in New York's Colombo crime family, but has since found God and turned away from his old life. He is now releasing his own range of wine
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Armenian Wine Roots: Unveiling the Oldest Known Wine-Making Facility
In a groundbreaking revelation, archaeologists have discovered the world's earliestΒ known wine-making facility nestled in the landscapes of Armenia, an integral part ofΒ Armenian wine history.
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Earliest Known Winery Found in Armenian Cave
Barefoot winemakers likely worked in cave where oldest leather shoe was found. As if making theΒ oldest known leather shoeΒ wasn't enough, a prehistoric people in what's now Armenia also built the world's oldest known winery, a new study says. Undertaken at a burial site, their winemaking may have been dedicated to the deadβand it likely required the removal of any fancy footwear. Near the village of Areni, in the same cave where a stunningly preserved, 5,500-year-old leather moccasin was recently found, archaeologists have unearthed a wine press for stomping grapes, fermentation and storage vessels, drinking cups, and withered grape vines, skins, and seeds, the study says. "This is the earliest, most reliable evidence of wine production," said archaeologistΒ Gregory AreshianΒ of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). "For the first time, we have a complete archaeological picture of wine production dating back 6,100 years," he said. (Related:Β "First Wine? Archaeologist Traces Drink to Stone Age.") The prehistoric winemaking equipment was first detected in 2007, when excavations co-directed by Areshian and Armenian archaeologist Boris Gasparyan began at the Areni-1 cave complex. In September 2010 archaeologists completed excavations of a large, 2-foot-deep (60-centimeter-deep) vat buried next to a shallow, 3.5-foot-long (1-meter-long) basin made of hard-packed clay with elevated edges. The installation suggests the Copper Age vintners pressed their wine the old-fashioned way, using their feet, Areshian said. Juice from the trampled grapes drained into the vat, where it was left to ferment, he explained. The wine was then stored in jarsβthe cool, dry conditions of the cave would have made a perfect wine cellar, according to Areshian, who co-authored the new study, published Tuesday in theΒ Journal of Archaeological Science. (Related pictures:Β "Before and After: Wine-Cult Cave Art Restored in Petra.") Wine Traces To test whether the vat and jars in the Armenian cave had held wine, the team chemically analyzed pottery shardsβwhich had been radiocarbon-dated to between 4100 B.C. and 4000 B.C.βfor telltale residues. The chemical tests revealed traces of malvidin, the plant pigment largely responsible for red wine's color. "Malvidin is the best chemical indicator of the presence of wine we know of so far," Areshian said. Ancient-wine expertΒ Patrick E. McGovern, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, agrees the evidence argues convincingly for a winemaking facility. One thing that would make the claim a bit stronger, though, said McGovern, who wasn't involved in the study, is the presence of tartaric acid, another chemical indicator of grapes. Malvidin, he said, might have come from other local fruits, such as pomegranates. Combined with the malvidin and radiocarbon evidence, traces of tartaric acid "would then substantiate that the facility is the earliest yet found," he said. "Later, we know that small treading vats for stomping out the grapes and running the juice into underground jars are used all over the Near East and throughout the Mediterranean," he added. (Related:Β "Ancient Christian 'Holy Wine' Factory Found in Egypt.") Winery Discovery Backed Up by DNA? McGovern called the discovery "important and unique, because it indicates large-scale wine production, which would imply, I think, that the grape had already been domesticated." As domesticated vines yield much more fruit than wild varieties, larger facilities would have been needed to process the grapes. McGovern has uncovered chemical and archaeological evidence of wine, but not of a winery, in northern Iran dating back some 7,000 yearsβaround a thousand years earlier than the new find. But the apparent discovery that winemaking using domesticated grapevines emerged in what's now Armenia appears to dovetail with previous DNA studies of cultivated grape varieties, McGovern said. Those studies had pointed to the mountains of Armenia, Georgia, and neighboring countries as the birthplace of viticulture. McGovernβwhose bookΒ Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic BeveragesΒ traces the origins of wineβsaid the Areni grape perhaps produced a taste similar to that of ancient Georgian varieties that appear to be ancestors of the Pinot Noir grape, which results in a dry red. To preserve the wine, however, tree resin would probably have been added, he speculated, so the end result may actually have been more like a Greek retsina, which is still made with tree resin. In studying ancient alcohol, he added, "our chemical analyses have shown tree resin in many wine samples." Ancient Drinking Rituals While the identities of the ancient, moccasin-clad wine quaffers remain a mystery, their drinking culture likely involved ceremonies in honor of the dead, UCLA's Areshian believes. "Twenty burials have been identified around the wine-pressing installation. There was a cemetery, and the wine production in the cave was related to this ritualistic aspect," Areshian speculated. Significantly, drinking cups have been found inside and around the graves. McGovern, the ancient-wine expert, said later examples of ancient alcohol-related funerary rituals have been found throughout the world. In ancient Egypt, for example, "you have illustrations inside the tombs showing how many jars of beer and wine from the Nile Delta are to be provided to the dead," McGovern said. (Also seeΒ "Scorpion King's WinesβEgypt's OldestβSpiked With Meds.") "I guess a cave is secluded, so it's good for a cemetery, but it's also good for making wine," he added. "And then you have the wine right there, so you can keep the ancestors happy." Future work planned at Areni will further investigate links between the burials and winemaking, study leader Areshian said. Winemaking as Revolution The discovery is important, the study team says, because winemaking is seen as a significant social and technological innovation among prehistoric societies. Vine growing, for instance, heralded the emergence of new, sophisticated forms of agriculture, Areshian said. "They had to learn and understand the cycles of growth of the plant," he said. "They had to understand how much water was needed, how to prevent fungi from damaging the harvest, and how to deal with flies that live on the grapes. "The site gives us a new insight into the earliest phase of horticultureβhow they grew the first orchards and vineyards," he added. University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Naomi Miller commented that "from a nutritional and culinary perspective, wine expands the food supply by harnessing the otherwise sour and unpalatable wild grape. "From a social perspective, for good and ill," Miller said, "alcoholic beverages change the way we interact with each other in society." **** The ancient-winery study was led by UCLA's Hans Barnard and partially funded by the National Geographic Society'sΒ Committee for Research and Exploration. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)
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Armenian Wines Are Kicking With Quality
Armenian winesβdespite a checkered pastβlook toward a brilliant future. In a land resembling a cross between rural Utah, inland California and South Pass, Wyoming, withΒ a capital city (Yerevan)Β that is safe, attractive and progressive, modern Armenian winemakers are a diverse and hardy lot. Representative backgrounds include that of a Berkeley chef, a Milanese fashion guru, an Argentinian infrastructure billionaire, a Moscow MBA graduate and the family of a Bostonian victim of past Bolshevik repression. This landβsmaller than the country of Belgium or the size of the U.S. states of Delaware and Vermont combinedβhas in the past five years seen a grueling four-day war as well as a separate Velvet Revolution that toppled the government. This period also included a drinking revolution where wine bars in the capital of Yerevan blossomed tenfold, and 25 new wineries were founded in just 2018. Armenian Wine In History Beginning over a decade ago a series of archaeological βfirstsβ were discovered in a cliffside cave near the mountain town of Areni. These included the earliest known shoe, the oldest known brain tissue from the Old World and a 6,100-year-old wineryβtheΒ earliest ever discovered on earth. In what is now known as the Areni-1 Cave, the public can view clay cylindrical containers (each more than a yard/meter in diameter) where wine was produced for burial ceremonies. Boris GasparyanΒ of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia spoke about this cave. βWhen you map all the early sites regarding ancient winemaking, they are all religious. We hypothesize that wine appeared in the context of religion. It was not any everyday product until the Iron Age.β (In the region where Armenia is located, the Iron Age began about 1,200 BC.) The truth is clear: whether for rituals or relaxation, Armeniaβs descendants have been sipping fermented grape juice for millennia. During Soviet rule between 1920 and 1991, winemaking in Armenia suffered from a heavy focus on quantity over quality. Brandy was then considered more important to produce than wine. In 1980, Armenia produced a quarter of all brandy consumed in the Soviet Union. Aramis Mkrtchyan, a viticulture specialist at theΒ Vine & Wine Foundation of Armenia, told of this past. βDuring the time of the Soviet union, all wineries belonged to the government. They destroyed many vines and there was no interest in know-how. They produced high quantities of very sweet wines according to planned production. Just three years ago there was no organization to unify producers around the table to work together and strategize. Now Armenian wine producers are more unified after the wine sector was recognized by the government as key for the economy.β A visit to a few Armenian wineries reveals how this nationβs winemakers form a proud group that is unusually replete with big thinking entrepreneurs. Karina Baghdasaryan, PR/Marketing director for the Vine & Wine Foundation of Armenia, told of the countryβs recent wine history. βThereβs a lot of new foreign investment, often by Armenians living overseas. In the next two years we expect millions of dollars in investment, mostly in vineyards. Annually, we produce 10 million liters [2.6 million gallons] and export three million liters [0.8 million gallons].β Grapes Grapes grow in five viticultural regions in the country, andβaccording to the Vine & Wine Foundation of Armeniaβthe country has more than 400 indigenous grape varieties, or about half as many as Italy, which is geographically 10 times larger. Of that total number, 31 grapesΒ are used to make wine. For whites, common grapes include Voskehat and Kangun. For reds, Areni rules. (Areni is sometimes referred to as Areni Noir.) Wine made from the Areni grape is a bit of a chameleonβthink Merlot blended with Pinot Noir, or Syrah merging with the swimming energy of an ΓkΓΌgΓΆzΓΌ. Areni can lilt and seduce, or shout and command. Think cherries and spice: the kick of a CarmΓ©nΓ¨re with the confident ease and gentle structure of a Beaujolais cru. Here is both grit and velvet, zest and sweetness, versatility and confidence. Areni can be feminine as well as masculine, though more of the former. Itβs more quietly seductive than overtly flirtatious. Itβs Penny Lane by the Beatles rather than Rolling Stoneβs Satisfaction, lamb chops more than grilled sirloinβbut only slightly so. More right bank than left bank Bordeaux, more RhΓ΄ne valley than Cahors. ButβonlyΒ justΒ so. Areni huddles close to the ridge line that divides roundness/assertive distinctions. Sometimes it crosses over, like a bold and curious cadet who dashes over a border for a quick peek before jogging back. The quality of Armeniaβs top wines todayβwhether white or red, rosΓ© or bubblingβis frequently stellar. One key reason is that several Armenians who left the country are returning, armed with ample cash, business and marketing savvy and networks of wine consulting contacts to aid their efforts. Another factor is that during the last three years the government has begun a serious push to aid winemakers market this βSacred Land of Wine.β Climate can be challenging. Subzero temperatures in the province of Armavir, for example, result in some wineries needing to bury the base of their vines during winter to protect them. Non-indigenous grape varieties can suffer in adverse conditions. Yet winemakers are rapid to adapt. One explained how when their Chardonnay and Colombard grapes were damaged by frost, local Rkatsiteli grapes (typically used in Georgia for wine and in Armenia for brandy) were used instead to produce their extra brut sparkling wine. Conversely, aridity from blistering summer heat requires irrigation in most vineyards. Oak Many wineries use Armenian oak (also known as Caucasian oak because much originates in the Caucasus mountains) which can be up to 250 years old. The cost of these oak barrels is about a quarter the cost of imported French oak. This wood originates from forests in the Artsakh region (also known as Nagorno-Karabakh) which is disputed territoryβself-proclaimed as autonomous but internationally recognized otherwise. This oak provides strong flavors including sweet tones such as vanilla, as well as spiciness and aromas of eucalyptus. Ararat Mkrtchyan ofΒ Voskeni WinesΒ studied mathematics in Moscow, then worked with Deloitte before returning to work with his familyβs Armenian winery. He spoke about this oak. βArmenian oak is considered more intense than French oak because the humidity is lower. So, it requires less contact time with wine. It is a different and darker species of oak with tighter porosity and has spicy potential for wines. But it must be well prepared and dried for at least three years to avoid the taste of green tannins.β The last stipulationβrequisite agingβwas neglected by many wineries in the past.
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