Winemaking Seminar with Chilean Experts

Within the framework of the organized festivals dedicated to the Agriculture Workers’ Day a seminar was held in Yerevan for Armenian winemakers by the participation of the experts arrived from Chile. The seminar was attended by the Deputy Ministers of Agriculture Armen Harutyunyan, Robert Makaryan, Garnik Petrosyan, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Chile to Armenia Mr. Juan Eduardo Eguiguren, the president of the Winemakers Union of Armenia Avag Harutyunyan, other guests.

During the seminar wine expert Nicholas Kovalsky and the president of the International Center of Wine and Gastronomy Leonid Gelibterman introduced the history of Chilean viticulture and winemaking development, specifications and successful experience, in the result of which today winemaking is one of the leading sectors of the Chilean economy, the production of which is recognized worldwide and has a large consuming.

The country has succeeded in shaping the culture of wine-drinking among the population. Domestic wine consumption is 15 liters to 1 per capita.

Chile is one of the few countries in the world where there is no filoksera. According to Leonid Gelibterman the reason is soil composition which has quite high copper content, in addition there are very strict laws regulating wine production, and each grapevine appearing in Chile undergoes mandatory quarantine around 6 years.

The president of the Winemakers Union of Armenia Avag Harutyunyan, in turn, presented the centuries-old history of Armenian winemaking, stages of development, present situation and problems.

According to him Chile’s experience can be instructive and useful for us. In this regard, he stressed the importance of the involvement and advisory support of the experts for the strategic elaboration of winemaking development in Armenia.

At the end of the event a tasting of Chilean and Armenian wines was organized for the participants.

Within the framework of the events bilateral cooperation issues were also discussed with the Chilean Ambassador over which a cooperation document is expected to be signed between the Ministries of Agriculture of the two countries in the future.

Division of Information and Public Relations of

the RA Ministry of Agriculture