Mediamax's exclusive interview with Yerevan Brandy Company (YBC) Chief Operating Officer (COO) Igor Arakelyan

- Yerevan Brandy Factory is a partner of Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, which will be awarded on April 24 in Yerevan. What inspired you to become a partner of this initiative?

- It’s really important for us to take part in such a large-scale humanitarian initiative.

In fact, if you take a retrospective look at the history of ARARAT, you will easily notice that Yerevan Brandy Company has always kept significant Armenia projects in sight and supported them when necessary. The history of Armenia often intertwined with ARARAT’s.

In this regard, I cannot name only one reason that inspired us to be a partner of Aurora Prize. This initiative is incredibly interesting both in its claim and ideology. The idea to express Armenian Genocide survivors’ gratitude to rescuers 100 years later and give a start to a new global initiative is unique, and we are infinitely happy to make our contribution to its implementation.

- We believe you could say without exaggeration that Yerevan Brandy Company itself is a symbol of Armenia’s rebirth.

- True, as Yerevan Brandy Company continued working even in the hardest times and renewed every time owing to the people, the Masters, their selfless love and devotion to their work.

An important example of inspiration for future generations is the story of Margar Sedrakyan, one of the brightest masters-blenders at Yerevan Brandy Factory. This man, a Genocide survivor, earned great recognition, becoming Knight of Degustation.

He is the author of a number of famous ARARAT blends. With every brandy blend he created, he paid a tribute of deep respect and sincere admiration to his generous land and freedom-loving people.

- We’d like to congratulate you on your victory, as it became known a while ago that blends of Yerevan Brandy Factory received high prizes at the international competition in San Francisco.

- Undoubtedly, this is a valuable victory for the whole team of Yerevan Brandy Factory. Legendary Armenian ARARAT brandy is the first Armenian brand to represent our country at San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Following the historical way of winning new prizes, ARARART “Akhtamar” 10-year-old brandy earned the golden medal, and ARARAT “5 stars” 5-year-old brandy won the silver one. We are proud that ARARAT brandy blends honorably represent our country in the world.