Ararat (brandy)

{{Short description|Brand of Armenian brandy}}

{{Infobox brand

| name = Ararat

| image = Ararat brandy from yerevan.jpg

| caption =

| currentowner = Pernod Ricard

| previousowners = Yerevan Brandy Company

| introduced = 1877

| country = Armenia

| producttype = Brandy

| website = {{URL|ybc.am}}

}}

Ararat (stylized as ArArAt) is a brand of Armenian brandy produced 10 years before the Yerevan Brandy Company was established (1877).{{cite journal|url=http://www.kommersant.com/t373890/r_2/n_10/Armenia |title=Armenia. The cognac republic |journal=Коммерсантъ|author=Vladimir Gendlin|date=2003|access-date=2007-07-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930184435/http://www.kommersant.com/t373890/r_2/n_10/Armenia |archive-date=2007-09-30}}{{cite news |last=Prynn |first=Jonathan |date=23 March 2012 |title=First chance to buy brandy that Stalin served Churchill |url=http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/uk/first-chance-to-buy-brandy-that-stalin-served-churchill-7582925.html |access-date=6 March 2015 |work=London Evening Standard |quote=Sir Winston Churchill's favourite Armenian brandy... The brandy, which was also a favourite of Agatha Christie and Frank Sinatra, has been made in the Ararat Valley since 1877.}} It is made from white grapes and spring water, according to a traditional method. The brand's "ordinary brandies" are aged between 3 and 6 years. Its "aged brandies" are between 10 and 30 years old.

Ararat brandy is primarily sold in countries of the former USSR, chief among them Russia, Georgia, Ukraine and Belarus. In the Russian-speaking countries of the former Soviet Union, the Armenian brandy is marketed as cognac ({{langx|ru|армянский коньяк|armjanskij konjak}}).

A widely spread story exists about the brandy by Russian company "Choustov and sons" winning the Grand Prix award at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900 that allowed Ararat to legally call their brandy "cognac" until it was revoked after WWII.{{Cite web |last=Micallef |first=Joseph V. |title=Exploring The World Of Armenian Brandy |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/joemicallef/2018/04/12/exploring-the-world-of-armenian-brandy/ |access-date=2022-09-05 |website=Forbes |language=en}}[http://www.en.cigarclan.com/articles/2004/1/11/ Cigar Clan Magazine, In the Steps of Churchill, Volume I 2004] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081226172045/http://www.en.cigarclan.com/articles/2004/1/11/ |date=December 26, 2008 }} However, this story is regarded as untruthful by some sources{{cite journal |title=Таирян, Шустов |journal=Nauka i Zhizn |date=1999 |volume=3 |page=69}} and "Choustov" appears on the list of Paris Grand Prix winners under section «Sirops et liqueurs; spiritueux divers; alcools d’industrie» and not «Vins et eaux-de-vie de vin», were cognacs were presented[https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9765409t/f758.item.r=choustov LivreListe des récompenses : Exposition universelle de 1900, à Paris (724)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215225431/https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9765409t/f758.item.r=choustov}} {{in lang|fr}}

In any case, the term "brandy" has never really caught on in the region.