Alexandrea Winery has been awarded a Gold Medal for its Pinot Noir 2024 and a Silver Medal for its Riesling 2024 at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles 2026.
LOS ANGELES, ARMENIA, UNITED STATES, June 30, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Alexandrea Winery’s debut Pinot Noir harvest earns international gold in Brussels — and signals Armenia‘s arrival on the world wine stage.
YEREVAN, ARMENIA, June 24, 2026 – Alexandrea Winery has been awarded a Gold Medal for its Pinot Noir 2024 and a Silver Medal for its Riesling 2024 at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles 2026 – one of the most prestigious international wine competitions in the world, with over 9,000 wines evaluated annually by a global panel of expert judges.
The Gold Medal for the Pinot Noir is historic.It is currently Armenia’s only commercially produced 100% Pinot Noir, and it received a Gold Medal for its very first vintage.No second chances. No years of refinement. The first vintage, from the first crop, was recognized on the international stage.
“We broke 70 centimeters of volcanic rock by hand to plant these vines. We spent five years learning the land before we made a single bottle. This medal is not a surprise to me; it is a confirmation of what the land was always capable of.” Adam Kablanian, Founder, Alexandrea Winery
From Volcanic Rock to International Recognition
Alexandrea Winery was founded in 2017 by Adam A. Kablanian, an Armenian-American entrepreneur and former technology executive whose previous ventures include co-founding Virage Logic, a semiconductor IP company acquired by Synopsys, and leading companies whose technologies were acquired by Cisco, Samsung Display, and others.
The winery manages approximately 70 hectares across three vineyard sites in Armenia, with the flagship Proshyan vineyard at an altitude of 1,315 meters in the Kotayk region. The soil at Proshyan is dense volcanic gravel extending more than 70 centimeters deep — so resistant that Japanese rock-cutting machinery was required to prepare the land for planting.
The award-winning 2024 Pinot Noir is sourced from three distinct plots within Proshyan, each contributing distinct structural elements to the final wine. Chief Winemaker Jeff Ritchey — a 31-year veteran winemaker from California — designed the blend to reflect the unique character of each block: structure, fruit, and forest-floor earthiness.
The wine was aged for ten months in a barrel with 25% new French oak. It represents not only the first commercial Pinot Noir produced in Armenia, but the first harvest from those specific plots — a result that Ritchey has described publicly as “pretty remarkable for a first crop off a vineyard.”
Silver for the Riesling: A Personal Vision Validated
The Silver Medal for the Riesling 2024 carries its own significance. The decision to plant Riesling at Proshyan was Kablanian’s personal conviction — drawn from five years he spent leading a company in Germany, where he developed a deep appreciation for the variety. Ritchey was initially skeptical that the grape would perform at altitude in Armenia.
The Brussels panel’s recognition of the Riesling as a Silver Medal wine confirms what five years of careful viticulture at Proshyan have demonstrated: the site has the altitude, temperature differential, and soil composition to produce world-class cool-climate white wines.
About Concours Mondial de Bruxelles
The Concours Mondial de Bruxelles is one of the world’s leading international wine competitions, founded in 1994. Each year, more than 9,000 wines from across the globe are submitted and evaluated by an international jury of professional tasters — sommeliers, wine buyers, journalists, and educators. A Gold Medal is awarded to wines that achieve outstanding scores in blind tasting across all jury panels.
About Adam A. Kablanian
Adam A. Kablanian is an Armenian-American entrepreneur, investor, and winemaker. He co-founded Virage Logic in 1996, leading the company from startup to NASDAQ listing and eventual acquisition by Synopsys, with a team whose components were used in the first-generation Apple iPod. He subsequently led PlasmaSi (acquired by Aixtron), Memoir Systems (acquired by Cisco), and Cynora (acquired by Samsung Display in 2022). In 2017, he founded Alexandrea Winery in Armenia, combining his private investment philosophy with a commitment to developing Armenia’s agricultural economy and international reputation. He is the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Gratitude from the Republic of Armenia.
Emma Sargsyan
Sargsyan Group
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