Mikayelyan Family Farm

The Mikayelyan Family Farm was born after its co-founder, Marina Shaqaryan-Mikayelyan, began longing for a simpler life outside of the capital—and now, in the small village of Artsvakar just off Lake Sevan, Shaqaryan-Mikayelyan is the head cheesemaker of Armenia’s first (and most prominent) artisan cheese producer. There’s cheese wrapped in vine leaves, brined in pomegranate syrup, and even a two-year-old variety that’s carefully rubbed with cognac each day from the world-renowned Ararat Brandy every day. “She knows every cheese wheel by its face,” says her husband Arman, with whom she runs the business. While Armenia is primarily known for just two types of cheese—Lori and Chanakh—Shaqaryan-Mikayelyan wanted to do something different. Having previously worked as a biochemist, she now translates her passion for science into her cheeses, having gained her knowledge from books and a lot of experimentation. The current collection includes 10 different kinds of cheeses; the number of experiments that have gone wrong, however, totals more than 50. But she’s not afraid of failure: “It's all part of the process.” Arman adds. “Failure happens more often than a good result, but we know that we must never stop.”