Oghi

Ingredients

Mash

• 20 kgvery ripe black or white mulberries, cornelian cherries or apricots, stems removed
• no added water if the fruit is juicy; up to 4 litres spring water for stone fruit
• no sugar in the traditional village version; 1 kg per 10 kg fruit only if the fruit is poor
• the fruit’s own wild yeast, or 10 g fruit wine yeast if the weather is cold

Equipment

• 1oak or food-grade plastic barrel of 30 litres with a loose lid
• 1copper alembic still with a coiled condenser
• 1alcoholmeter and a 250 ml glass cylinder

To serve

• 50 mloghi per person, at cool room temperature
• dried fruit, walnuts and cheese alongside

Directions

1. Crush the fruit by hand or with a wooden pestle straight into the barrel, breaking every berry so the sugar can reach the yeast; do not wash the fruit, since the bloom on the skins carries the wild yeast that starts the ferment.
2. Cover loosely, keep the barrel at 20 to 25°C (75°F), and stir the floating cap down twice a day; within 24 hours it should be foaming and smelling of yeast and fruit. Ferment 10 to 20 days, until the cap sinks, the bubbling stops and the liquid tastes dry and sour rather than sweet, around 6 to 9 per cent alcohol.
3. Discard the first 50 to 100 ml per 20 litres of mash: these heads smell of solvent and nail varnish and carry the methanol, and throwing them out is the single most important safety step. Collect the hearts while the distillate runs clear and sweet-smelling, cutting off at about 45 per cent in the stream when the aroma turns wet-cardboard and the liquid tastes of tails.
4. Rest the spirit in glass for at least a month so the harshness settles, then pour into small stemless glasses and drink at cool room temperature between toasts, never chilled to numbness.

Technique

• Home distilling is illegal in most countries and is legal and normal in rural Armenia; treat this as documentation of the traditional process, not an instruction to break your local law.
• Cutting the heads is not optional. Methanol boils lower than ethanol and comes over first, and fruit mashes, especially stone fruit, make more of it than grain does.
• Mulberry oghi (t’ti oghi) is the prestige bottling and needs no sugar; cornelian cherry (honi) is sharper and more medicinal, and apricot is the softest and most floral.
• Never use a lead-soldered or galvanised condenser. Copper is traditional because it strips sulphur compounds as the vapour passes.

Substitutions

• Where distilling is banned, buy a bottle of Armenian mulberry or cornelian cherry oghi; a good Balkan rakia or a Hungarian palinka is the closest substitute in a glass, slightly less perfumed.
• No copper still: a stainless pot still gives a coarser spirit, so add a short copper packing section in the column to compensate.

Variations

• Honi oghi, from cornelian cherries, is the Vayots Dzor and Tavush house version and is drunk as a digestif.
• Tuti oghi from white mulberries is the sweetest-smelling and the one poured at weddings.
• Some villages infuse the finished spirit with St John’s wort or walnut partitions for a bitter medicinal oghi.

History

Home-distilled across rural Armenia from whatever fruit ripens; mulberry oghi from the south is the most prized.

Frequently asked questions

What is Oghi?

Oghi is a wine & spirit from Armenia: clear fruit spirit distilled from mulberries, cornelian cherries or apricots. Home-distilled across rural Armenia from whatever fruit ripens; mulberry oghi from the south is the most prized.

How long does Oghi take to make?

Oghi takes 1 hr to crush and set the mash of preparation and 10 to 20 days fermenting plus 1 day distilling of cooking. The recipe makes about 1.5 litres of spirit at 45% abv from 20 kg fruit. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Oghi?

Yes, within limits. Where distilling is banned, buy a bottle of Armenian mulberry or cornelian cherry oghi; a good Balkan rakia or a Hungarian palinka is the closest substitute in a glass, slightly less perfumed. No copper still: a stainless pot still gives a coarser spirit, so add a short copper packing section in the column to compensate.

What is the most important thing to get right in Oghi?

Crush the fruit by hand or with a wooden pestle straight into the barrel, breaking every berry so the sugar can reach the yeast; do not wash the fruit, since the bloom on the skins carries the wild yeast that starts the ferment.