The event was created in 2017 by Mary Badalyan and Nune Manukyan to present the cultural significance of Armenian wine-making to the world. Badalyan said she “wanted people to come to Yerevan, learn about Armenia, and remember our city’s name”.

The festival is also a major tourist attraction, with the number of visitors increasing each year. This year around 45,000 tourists visited the festival, making it one of the biggest annual events held in the Republic of Armenia. The festival has expanded from 10,000 visitors its first year with only 20 featured wine companies to showcasing 80 wine companies and earning an annual profit of $25mn.

The main feature of the 2024 event was the karas, a traditional terracotta pot used for wine-making. The karas – which dates back to the eighth century BC – represents the centuries old history of Armenian wine-making.

The festival was divided into four zones – wine, gastro (food), music and charity – with 87 Armenian wine producers promoting around 1,000 different varieties of wine. On top of this, it also offered a variety of gifts from participants and sponsors, daily raffles, and exciting events such as flash mobs and dance numbers.

Prior to Azerbaijan’s forced displacement of more than 120,000 ethnic Armenians from Artsakh last September, the Armenian enclave had around 15 wineries and produced ‘approximately four million litres of wine annually’.

However, a winemaker at Voskevaz Wine Cellar, Ghevond Petrosyan, has described how the recent events in Artsakh have had a negative impact on their wine production due to a shortage of the Artsakh oak wood used as barrels.

Artsakh Armenians have not only lost access to their ancestral homeland, but to the vineyards that grew a variety of indigenous grapes, including the red Khndoghni (also known as Sireni).

The festival acts as an important space to represent Artsakhian culture and significance, and bring attention to these issues. The groups Artsakh Voices and the Artsakh Jazz Band also participated in the music zone of the festival.

This year’s festival was a resounding success, from the large variety of wine and grapes displayed to the rich culture of Armenia.