Armenia’s position is different from every other country here: it has a world-famous grape spirit that isn’t rakia, and a rakia-equivalent tradition that is almost entirely homemade. Armenian brandy — konyak, made by the Yerevan Brandy Company under the Ararat label and by others — is a wine distillate aged in Caucasian oak, produced industrially since 1887 and modelled on Cognac. It’s Armenia’s flagship export spirit, and it is not oghi.

Oghi (օղի, sometimes aragh) is the actual fruit-and-grape spirit tradition — Armenia’s cognate of rakia. It’s overwhelmingly home-distilled, usually 50–60% or higher, and the vast majority of it never sees a bottle with a label at all.

Rakia Today

The single most worth seeking is t’ti oghi, made from black mulberries and giving a deep, jammy, almost balsamic fruit character quite unlike any grape spirit — associated particularly with Syunik and the Karabakh region. Dziran oghi, apricot, carries outsized cultural weight given how central apricot is to Armenian identity, even though production volumes are modest.

Because oghi is so thoroughly a home product, the useful route to it is through a village guesthouse or a family rather than a shop — commercial bottlings labelled “Armenian vodka” in export markets are often oghi under a misleading name, with highly variable quality.

Native Spirits

Fruit-Based

• T'ti Oghi (Mulberry) [B] — The iconic Armenian fruit spirit and the one most worth seeking — made from black mulberries, giving a deep, jammy, almost balsamic character quite unlike any grape spirit. Associated particularly with Syunik and the Karabakh region.
• Hon Oghi (Cornelian Cherry) [B–C] — Made from hon, the cornelian cherry that grows wild across the Caucasus — tart, red-fruited and astringent. Highly regarded domestically and rarely exported.
• Dziran Oghi (Apricot) [B–C] — Armenia’s national fruit turned into spirit — fragrant and stone-fruited when well made, and more emotionally significant than its modest production volume suggests.

Grape-Based

• Khaghoghi Oghi (Grape) [B–C] — The everyday form of oghi in wine-growing regions, particularly Vayots Dzor and Armavir, made from pomace or whole fruit.

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• Fig, quince, plum, pear and blackberry oghi [D] — Household production across the regions, essentially invisible commercially.

Not rakia: Armenian brandy — the Ararat-label konyak and others — is a wine distillate aged in Caucasian oak, industrially produced since 1887 and modelled on Cognac. It’s Armenia’s flagship export spirit, but a completely separate tradition from oghi. Full profile →

Specialty Spirits

Armenia’s most internationally significant spirit of any country in this set — Ararat brandy — sits alongside a smaller pomegranate-liqueur export trade.

Brandy

• Ararat [A] — The most internationally significant spirit in this whole set. The Yerevan Brandy Company was founded in 1887, later owned by Russian merchant Nikolay Shustov, and is now part of Pernod Ricard — distilling wine made from Armenia’s white varieties (Voskehat, Garan Dmak, Mskhali, Kangun, Rkatsiteli) and ageing it in Caucasian oak. The range runs 3/5/6 star, then named expressions: Ani, Otborny, Akhtamar (10 years), Vaspurakan (15), Nairi (20) and Erebuni (25). The story that Stalin gifted Churchill a lifetime supply of Dvin is repeated everywhere and documented nowhere — treat it as folklore.
• Noy / Proshyan [B] — The main alternatives to Ararat, from other Yerevan producers.

Liqueurs

• Pomegranate Wine and Liqueur [A–B] — Heavily exported, and often the first “Armenian wine” a foreign buyer encounters — usually semi-sweet. It is not grape wine, and shouldn’t be confused with Armenia’s actual Areni and Voskehat grape wines.

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• Mulberry and cornelian cherry infusions [C] — Sweetened household infusions using the same fruits as oghi. Rarely commercial.

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