Artsakh – a drink with a strength of 40-80 degrees, made by distillation from some types of local berries and southern fruits. The most common variety of this alcohol is mulberry artsakh (also known as mulberry). Next comes the dogwood artsakh, followed by distillates made from apricots, peaches and grapes. Thus, this drink should be classified as brandy. Sometimes it is even called the Armenian chacha, but as we will soon see, the latter definition is also erroneous.
At the same time, in fact, this Transcaucasian alcohol has nothing to do with grain or potato rectified products. But it is called Armenian quite rightly. After all, it is produced mainly in southeastern Armenia (Zangezur) and belonging to Azerbaijan, but inhabited by ethnic Armenians, Nagorno-Karabakh.
famous cognac brands
Production technology
Unlike chacha produced in neighboring Georgia, the raw material for Artsakh is not fruit cake, but berries and fruits that have not been squeezed. They are collected at the peak of their maturation, then mashed and, together with the juice, are sent to clay or enameled fermentation containers. At the same time, pits are preliminarily removed from dogwood, peaches and apricots so that the future drink does not taste bitter. Since the production of real Artsakh excludes the addition of sugar and cultivated yeast to the mash, the fermentation process can take more than one month, and the amount of the drink at the end is rather modest. So, to get a liter of mulberries, you need 5 kg of mulberry. In order to give the world a liter of dogwood, you need no more and no less than 35 kg of wild dogwood.
Ripe mash is distilled in copper stills, similar to the good old Charente cognac alambiques. Ideally, this should be done twice, with the separation of alcohol into fractions during the secondary distillation. As a result, a very picky drink is obtained, which has a rich sweet and sour taste and a sour fruit and berry aroma.
At the end of the distillation, most of the distillates are diluted with environmentally friendly spring water, filtered and immediately bottled. However, some of the alcohols obtained undergo an additional aging step. First of all, we are talking about mulberry. It is aged for 1-5 years in burnt barrels made from mulberry trees that have ceased to bear fruit. If we are talking, for example, about aging apricot, then the barrels for it are made from apricot wood. It’s funny that rogue dealers often call Artsakh like cognac.
How to drink Artsakh
The fruit and berry brandy we are interested in is served not chilled and is drunk in its pure form from glasses, whose volume does not exceed 50 ml. It is ideal for a feast consisting of meat, fish and vegetable dishes of Armenian or Azerbaijani cuisine. In addition, the inhabitants of Transcaucasia recommend using it as a digestif. Although, according to experts on alcohol, this drink can be consumed before a meal.
Brands of Armenian fruit and berry brandy
If you decide to get to know Artsakh better, you should remember the following alcohol brands:
Archah brandy
Apricot
Astafyan VKZ
Ijevan VKZ
Land of stones
If you want to taste artisanal exotics with clay fermenting karases and great-grandfather family recipes, then you can’t do without direct familiarization with the Armenian primary sources.
Relevance: 25.02.2017
Tags: brandy and cognac