Ancient roots

History

From ancient wine jars to Soviet plants and a modern revival.

Ancient roots

A cradle of winemaking

Winemaking came to Azerbaijan from deep antiquity. The South Caucasus is one of those corners of the world where the vine was first cultivated. Archaeologists have found jars here with the remains of wine dating to the 2nd millennium BC, and traces of ancient viticulture have been uncovered in excavations at Goygol, Kültəpə and Qarabağlar in Nakhchivan.

For millennia wine was part of local life — of feasts, rites and trade. Each era added something of its own, but the vine in these valleys was almost never interrupted.

Milestones

Across the millennia

2nd mill. BC

The first wines

In the valleys of future Azerbaijan wine is already being made: archaeologists find jars with its remains.

Middle Ages

Vine and trade

Viticulture and winemaking flourish in Shirvan and Ganja; wine is part of daily life and of trade along the Silk Road.

1817–1818

The German colonists

Settlers from Württemberg found Helenendorf (now Goygol) and raise local winemaking to a European level.

1860

The Goygol plant

The Vohrer and Hummel families industrialise production; a historic wine plant is founded, one of the oldest in the land.

1970s–80s

Soviet scale

Azerbaijan is a major wine producer in the USSR: tens of thousands of hectares of vines and millions of tons of grapes a year.

1985

The anti-alcohol campaign

Gorbachev's campaign deals winemaking a heavy blow: vineyards are uprooted and production falls.

Since 2006

Revival

New wineries appear, the Goygol plant is restored, and Azerbaijani wine returns to the market.

In sum

The return of the wine land

The history of Azerbaijani wine is a history of rises and losses. The ancient craft saw both a flowering within a vast country and the near-total destruction of the vineyards in the 1980s.

Today winemaking is being reborn: old plants are restored, modern wineries open, and the wines of the Caucasus once again find their connoisseurs.