Millennia ago, long before the Caucasus region was divided up into nation states, people living here were cultivating grapes, and pretty soon they had the great idea of crushing them to make wine. One of Noah’s first impulses after surviving the flood was to plant a vineyard... And to drink rather excessively of the wine that it yielded. According to a sincerely believed local legend, Noah’s post-ark settlement was founded at what’s now the Azerbaijani city of Nakhchivan – where there’s even a tomb site of Noah that you can visit.

Biblical myths aside, an everincreasing body of archaeological and micro-botanical research does indeed suggest that wine was made in considerable quantity in ancient times at sites along the Arpachay River, a valley in Nakhchivan’s Sharur District. Several sites suggest an even older knowledge of wine by the Shulaveri-Shomutepe Culture, partly named after the Shomutepe archaeological site near Agstafa in West Azerbaijan. In Goygol District, jugs bearing wine residue have been unearthed dating back to the 2nd millennium BC, and in the North West region of Gabala, a wine cellar was discovered from the 1st-3rd centuries AD. Evidently..