My World of Brandy

  What is Armagnac? Armagnac is a brandy produced in the Armagnac region in Gascony, southwest France. 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. It is distilled from wine usually made from a blend of grapes including Baco 22A, Colombard, Folle blanche and Ugni blanc, traditionally using column stills rather than the pot stills used in the production of cognac, which is made only from Ugni blanc grapes. De Montal is an Armagnac producer which has the start from the middle of 18-hundreds when the noble family De Montal bought the castle Le Rietourt and the production of the grapes are from the area Bas-Armagnac. Their oldest Armagnac for sale are from 1893. The Armagnac Hors D'Age from De Montal has an ABV of 40%. It is a mix of the grapes Baco 22A, Colombard, Folle blanche and Ugni blanc. The ages is 12 years and older. It is a ...

Time to go back for a cognac now and the producer Bache Gabrielsen. This producer has an old history and this cognac house was founded in 1905 by Thomas Bache-Gabrielsen and is still today run by the family of Bache Gabrielsen. Thomas was an immigrant from Norway and this cognac house has strong connections with Norway. This cognac the Thomas XO prestige is a bit different from their normal XO cognac. The XO means that the cognac is at least 10 years old or if it was bottled before march 2018 it could be also minimum of six years old. The ABV is 40% and the speciality with this cognac is that it was stored in small oak casks. How small the oak casks were I don't know but probably smaller than the normal sized oak casks used for cognac which are the size of 350l or 500l. But smaller oak casks give away more oak taste to the cognac compared to bigger oak casks so for the Thomas XO Prestige I expect more oak flavours such as cinnamon. Colour: Soft amber Nose: Dried fruits with some...

In this blogpost I return to Armagnac and this time a single vintage 1978 from the producer Samalens. But first a short description on how Armagnac is made. Armagnac is a brandy from France produced in the Armagnac region in Gascony. It is distilled from a white wine which is made from different allowed grapes such as Colombard, Ugni Blanc etc. The big difference from Cognac is that during distillation most producers uses column stills instead of pot stills. Armagnac is distilled once and after the distillation the ABV is around 52%. So compared to Cognac they say that Armagnac contains a more rustic character. Grapes are harvested in the fall and the wine is distilled throughout the winter. All distillation must be finished by March 31. Only French oak barrels are allowed to be used for the ageing of Armagnac. To be released as a vintage the Armagnac must be at least ten years old. The producer Samalens tarted in 1882 in the Bas-Armagnac region of Armagnac. Samalens are one of th...

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 ...