Armavir region is one of the wine-making hubs of Armenia. In the heart of this region, in Etchmiadzin, lives the Machanyan family that turned their house into a winery run by Samvel Machanyan and his brothers.
A quick 20 km journey, and you meet Samvel Machanyan, a financier who had worked in a bank for 17 years and quit the job to run the Alluria family winery. According to Samvel, it was the best decision of his life. The winemaking traditions of the Machanyan family originated long ago in a small village called Aylur, located next to Lake Van. The name of the village, as well as the name of the wine, is associated with the Alluria River near the settlement.
The history of the Machanyan family's winemaking goes back for several centuries, and the techniques are more or less the same. After the Armenian Genocide of 1915, the family escaped to Etchmiadzin and brought with them the traditions of winemaking. The hobby has been passed down from generation to generation. Every year the family produced several hundreds of liters of wine. In 2013, Samvel started thinking about winemaking in the business segment and, after a while, he decided to try it!
I gave our wine to a girl to taste, as she understands very well how which wine is good quality. I needed to understand if we really managed to produce good wine. She liked it, and it gave a new impetus to the implementation of our commercial idea
The logo of the Alluria winery is formed by two letters – M and W (Machanyan and Wine), which are joined ina beautiful Armenian ornament. This symbol can be also seen on local carpets and in national architecture. The logoalso contains three peaks, three crosses and three roots, which represent the three Machanyan brothers (Aram, Samvel and Hrach) who manage the project. On December 2, 2016, the Machanyan family officially presented Alluria bottled wine to the world.
“We chose ram for the Alluria wine logo. Its image is often used in Armenian architecture. Ram are imperfect, unpredictable animals, but they are real and natural, like Alluria. The philosophy of the winery is to produce not ideal, but natural wine. The ram on the logo is a rather neutral image , and this also has a meaning and a purpose . This is done in order not to impose a certain image and a certain mood on consumers," says Samvel Machanyan.
When we asked about the main principles of the winery, Samvel, without hesitation, said that the main point is to get natural wine i. The production philosophy includes traditional methods and spontaneous fermentation without the use of sulfites. The wine must be made from local grape varieties! And, of course, Samvel also mentioned that their new wines are the result of experiments. They try different grape varieties, introduce new methods of wine production. For example, in 2018, the Machanyan brothers released white wine. The bottles were left in the cold all night to stop the fermentation – that's how its special taste appeared. Traditions are very important, but you also need to remember to move forward and come up with something new!
Samvel is sure that if you start a business for the sake of profit, it will not succeed. Any business requires not just tremendous work, but also attention, love, good mood, and a special attitude. Therefore, for Samvel, Alluria is primarily the interaction of wine with people. The emotions that people who drink wine experience are important to him. Wine should communicate with a person, leave an impression, create an image. However, wine, like any person, cannot be liked by everyone. According to Samvel, that is the most interesting thing about wine. Therefore, if you want to taste wine created by the interaction of experiments and traditions, you can sign up for a tasting at Samvel’s place or order a bottle of Alluria wine in wine establishments in Yerevan!
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