The Yerevan Brandy Company was founded in 1887 within the territories of the Erivan Fortress, by the wealthy 1st guild merchant Nerses Tairyan (Nerses Tairov), with the help of his cousin Vasily Tairov. However, the winery reached its hey-day in 1899, when it was leased to the Russian businessman Nikolay Shustov, who was a well-known vodka and liqueur producer. In 1900, the factory was fully acquired by Shustov to become known as "Shustov and Sons". Shustov's company became the main supplier of the Imperial Majesty's court of Russia. During the International Exhibition in Paris in 1900, Shustov's Armenian brandy received the Grand-Prix and the legal right to be called "cognac", following a blind degustation.