Few drinks have a better story than Armenian brandy. In Yerevan you will hear that Winston Churchill tasted it at the Yalta Conference, loved it, and that Stalin then sent him hundreds of bottles every year. Part of this is documented. Part of it is legend.
What is documented
Churchill and Stalin met several times during the Second World War. Accounts of their dinners mention Armenian brandy on the table. Historians of the Churchill Project note that Churchill praised the Armenian brandy Stalin served at Yalta in February 1945. One book on Churchill's dining habits also mentions him taking a bottle of Armenian brandy away from a dinner Stalin gave in Moscow in 1942.
So Churchill did know Armenian brandy, and he liked it.
What is not confirmed
Hundreds of bottles a year. The Churchill Archives Centre has found no record of regular shipments of brandy from the Soviet Union. By 1946 relations between Churchill and Moscow had turned cold, which makes yearly gifts unlikely.
A specific brand. The legend often names one particular brandy. No document links Churchill to a named Armenian brand.
His only brandy. Churchill drank several brandies. Hine was the usual one at his home in Chartwell, and in later years a French brandy was named as his favourite.
Why the story lasts
The legend says something true about Armenian brandy: in the middle of the twentieth century it was served to heads of state and could stand next to the best French brandies. The rest is how a good story grows when it is told for eighty years.
Armenian brandy today
The brandy that impressed visitors then came from the same land as today: grapes from the Ararat Valley, double distillation, long ageing in oak. TUFF XO is aged 20 years and TUFF Heritage 30 years, from the 1994 harvest. If you want to taste the story for yourself, start with our guide on how to drink Armenian brandy.
Questions and answers
Did Churchill really drink Armenian brandy?
Yes. Records of his meetings with Stalin mention Armenian brandy, and Churchill praised it at Yalta in 1945.
Did Stalin send Churchill brandy every year?
There is no documentary evidence of this. The Churchill archives have no record of such shipments.
Was it Armenian brandy or cognac?
In Soviet times Armenian brandy was called cognac. Today the export name is Armenian brandy. More on this in Armenian brandy or cognac.
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