Travels in THE LAND OF FIRE

A 400km road trip from Azerbaijan's oil-rich capital to the Silk Road city of Sheki explores a country where the past is always smouldering just below the surface

- Simon Unwin

We Azerbaijanis are full of contradictions," said my guide, Habil Gudratli, as he led me through the doors of Kefli, a wine bar in Baku whose name trans"W lates as 'tipsy'. "We are both European and Asian; we have an ancient history but are also considered a 'new' nation; and we are Muslims who love to drink."

We sat down and ordered from the bar's wine list, which champions small Azerbaijani labels and native Caucasian grape varieties. I scoured their unfamiliar names as Gudratli expounded on why locals believe their country to be one of the first to have created wine. As if to punctuate his point, glasses of rich, red Saperavi and crisp, white Bayanshira swiftly arrived.

In fairness, his claims weren't just national pride talking. Evidence of grape fermentation has been found in the region that dates back thousands of years - "Before wine emerged anywhere in Mediterranean Europe," claimed Gudratli. As such, drinking wine has long been ingrained in Azerbaijani culture and is depicted on ancient ceramics and in miniatures found in the State Museum of Art. It is even described in the epic romantic poems of Nizami Ganjavi, known as the Shakespeare of the Caucasus.

"Even when Islam arrived after the 7th century," Gudratli continued, "Azerbaijanis ignored the alcohol ban and made wine at home in clay vessels, because it is in our blood. So, sharafa! (Cheers!) Here's to a great journey ahead." Of course, I hadn't come to Azerbaijan just to drink wine.

I'd arrived to explore a country whose history and folk traditions are just as rich as its culture of winemaking, and found that all three were often entwined. My two-day road trip may have begun in modern capital Baku, yet even here, among the wine bars and eclectic ensemble of architectural styles, lies a medieval Islamic core, a labyrinth of cobbles and crenellated walls known as Icheri Sheher.