Armenia’s Vayots Dzor province was included in CNN’s list of 15 wine trails throughout the globe worth getting sidetracked on, an article revealed Wednesday, July 13.

Today, the choice of wine routes and tours from the essential (Bordeaux) and the scenic (Cape Town) to the historic (Armenia) or the unexpected (Brazil) is greater than ever, the article says.

“According to the Bible, Armenia was the first wine-producing region in the world, since it was on the slopes of Mount Ararat that Noah planted the first vine after the flood,” CNN says.

Reminding that a 6,100-year-old winery, the oldest discovered yet, was unearthed not long ago in Vayots Dzor, the article goes on to suggest that the local Areni variety has been unchanged for centuries, being highly resistant against disease with a thick skin that helps shield it from cold extremes.

The easiest wine-growing region to get to from the capital, Yerevan, is Vayots Dzor, where a microclimate ensures 300 sunny days a year, CNN says.

“Most organized tours zoom in on the Areni Noir, an incomparable red that put Armenia on the map when it was launched internationally in 2012.”

Also among the 15 best routes are Hunter Valley (Australia), Napa and Sonoma (California, the U.S.), Alentejo (Portugal), Cape Winelands (South Africa), Route des Vins (Alsace, France), Santorini (Greece), Maipo (Chile), Okanagan (Canada), Tuscany (Italy), Bento Goncalves (Brazil), Mendoza (Argentina), Rioja (Spain), Moselle Valley (Germany), Bordeaux (France).