Armagnac from the Castarede family

For my second blog entry I look at the brandy Armagnac from France and here I focus on the Castarede family. The Castarede family in Armagnac in France has been dealing with Armagnac since 1832.

What is Armagnac? Armagnac is a brandy produced in the Armagnac region. It is the oldest brandy in France but the production is much less volume than Cognac, like 30 times less. Also a another difference to Cognac is that in Armagnac a lot is being sold as vintages. I will talk much more about how Armagnac is produced in later blog posts.

The Castarede family has four different brands of which I have tried three. First up is the Castarede from 1972. This vintage is made of 100% of the grape Folly Blanche. It was bottled on the third of January 2012. That means that this Armagnac is 40 years old. In the nose I get Marzipan and dark fruits. In the taste there is dark fruits, walnuts, Christmas cake and some spices. The aftertaste is long and spicy. An excellent vintage Armagnac.

Next up is the brand Nismes-Delclou which has historical meanings for Castarede family. I have tasted their XO which is bottled at 40% ABV. Compared to a normal XO this has been aged for 20 years before being bottled. It has an amber colour. The smell is dark fruits with some marzipan. The taste is of dark fruits, Christmas cake and some rancio. One of the best XO that I have tasted.

The final armagnac from the Castarede family is the XO Chateau De Maniban. Like the previous two it has an ABV of 40%. The grapes used are 20% Colombard and 80% Ugni Blanc. This XO has been aged 12 years  before being bottled. The colour is bronze with some light amber. In the taste I get Vanilla, cinnamon, some dark fruits and burnt sugar. In the aftertaste I get cinnamon and burnt sugar. This one is a bit different from the two previous ones. Could the grape Colombard have been an influence? I think that with more ageing Maniban will take a differnt route compated to the Castarede range and the Nismes-Delclou. Very interesting and good.

Three different Armagnacs from the Castarede family which shows that they have a high quality on all their brands.  

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