Yerevan Ararat Brandy Factory, officially known as the Yerevan Ararat Brandy-Wine-Vodka Factory (), commonly known with its famous brand Noy, is a leading Armenian brandy production company in Yerevan, Armenia, currently owned by Gagik Tsarukyan's Multi Group Concern. It was founded in 1877 during the rule of the Russian Empire. The factory is located on the left bank of Hrazdan river at the centre of Yerevan, occupying the area of the historic Erivan Fortress. History Nerses Tairyan was a well-known merchant and philanthropist. In 1877 he started industrial production of wine, and later brandy in 1887, at the territory of the former Erivan Fortress. Hovhannes Aivazovsky, who was a relative of Tairyan, helped him to build the factory. In 1899 Nerses Tairyan leased the factory to Nikolay Shustov, who purchased it a year later for 50,000 roubles. Having established his own business in Moscow in 1863, Shustov became one of the first producers of brandy in Russia. Already in the 1870s "Shustov and Sons" company managed to take into its hands 80% of brandy-wine-vodka-liqueur production in the Russian Empire. In 1901 Nikolay Shustov sent samples of brandy to an exhibition in Paris. The judges, venerable French tasters, unanimously granted Grand Prix to the unknown brandy-maker, but after they found out that he was not French and the brandy was sent from Armenia, they were so astonished, that made an exception for Nikolay Shustov and granted him the privilege to put the word "cognac" on his labels, instead of "brandy", as it should naturally be. Thus, Shustov became the first and only foreign wine-maker all throughout the history of brandy-producing, who was honoured with this privilege. In 1899 Shustov invited Kyrill Silchenko, who had just finished Nikitin's school of wine-making, to work at the factory. He worked at the factory devotedly and dedicated all his life to the development of production of wine and brandy. This is why Armenians called him "the great Ukrainian son of Armenian people". The current facilities of the Yerevan Ararat Brandy Factory were built in 1938 on the site of the former sardar palace of the Erivan Fortress. The building was designed by architect Rafael Israelyan. In 2002, the factory entered Multi Group Concern. Around US$ 50 million were invested into restoration and constructions, acquisition of new bottling line and oak barrels. A number of recipes and technologies were restored by crumbs. With the help of