It so happened that at the beginning of 2020, two Japanese car brands, of which we have been official dealers for many years, invited us to their annual conferences, which, by the way, took place one after another. The ISUZU brand goes to Armenia, and HINO goes to
Azerbaijan. Together with my fellow competitors, we were slightly surprised by the choice of locations, as if the concept of competition was endowed with a special meaning.
To make the trip to Armenia more eventful, we arrived a week earlier at the ski resort in the city of Tsakhkadzor. As it turned out in practice, there are quite good mountains and terrible service on the ski slope itself. You are lucky if you received your order from a local cafe. There was a feeling that revenue and profit were not essential for local cafes. Everything was not bad, if at some point I had not fallen on my tailbone on the mountain ice and it would not have hurt me for a year after that.
Returning from the mountains to Yerevan, as part of the official program, we received a diploma as the best ISUZU truck dealer for 2019.
Armenia is a cognac country, and Yerevan is a cognac city. In the very center of the city, the largest factories “Ararat” and “Noy”, which were previously a single company, are located opposite each other. In particular, the Ararat plant was bought by the Pernod Ricard group, which produces famous spirits: Absolut, Ballantine's, Beefeater London, Chivas Regal, Havana Club, Jameson, Malibu, Martell, Royal Salute, The Glenlivet, Monkey 47, Becherovka, Kahlua , Olmeca. Many readers could see, if not their favorite drinks, then those that they sometimes go with.
It's fair to say that visiting any winery always naturally evokes a certain amount of optimism. Armenia declares with some jealousy that during the Soviet Union, Georgia was told to make wine, and they were told to make cognac, while Armenia is on the same latitude as France. Now they make wine in Armenia, some of which, admittedly, is quite worthy, if you don’t take into account berry experiments.
Later, we returned to Yerevan in 2021 following a wedding invitation. This trip was truly unforgettable with a very rich program.