Cutxan is a very small family-owned domaine that recently sold their entire stock to L’Encantada. Today we shall have a look at a pair from the 2006 vintage. L’Encantada Cutxan “Armagnac.de” 2006 15YO (51,2%): This has been bottled in 2022 and if I understand correctly, only a part of the barrel has been bottled. Nose:…
Category: Armagnac
Armagnac: Domaine de la Poste
100% Ugni Blanc with Darroze’s Domaine de la Poste, which very quickly made a name for itself, as far as I can tell/ my small bubble is concerned. Darroze Domaine de la Poste 1987 34YO (49%): Nose: Extremely floral with lavender, violets and other fragrant flowers. Then sweet peaches and other related stone fruits, juicy…
Armagnac: Séailles
Séailles from Ténarèze today, one of those amazing Armagnac domaines we haven’t even heard of until a year ago or so. It is just crazy how much high quality spirit is produced down there that is still flying under almost everyone’s radar. For some reason I have a feeling that this will not last for…
Armagnac: Laoué
Even though we’ve missed a session or two this month (we did catch a cold that made tastings impossible), we wanted to include the compulsory Yak session nevertheless (just in time… phew). And while it feels like we have tasted hundreds of Domaines by now already, the world of Armagnac still has as many that…
Armagnac: Pairs
Simply three little duos of Armagnac today, with all but one coming from the celebrated L’Encantada. L’Encantada Lous Pibous 2005 15YO #193 (57,3%): You know that Lous Pibous means Folle Blanche and Virgin Oak, right!? Nose: Relatively dry, muddy and woody. It kinda tries to hide as much as possible. Later plums, oranges and orange…
Armagnac: Darroze at Random
Random Armagnacs by one of the game’s biggest and most respected players, Darroze. In fact, together with L’Encantada, Darroze is probably THE bottler of Armagnac. Working closely together with many small and medium sized domaines, they almost always guarantee a very high level of quality. Todays Domaines are all one-offs in our sample library, hence…
Armagnac: Aurian
Typically I’d be telling you something about Aurian and its history at this point, but I am not sure how useful that is given that you can just as well click on the company history page of Aurian and get first hand information. For me, Aurian was absolutely unknown until last year’s Wu Dram Clan…
Armagnac: Château de Léberon
All of these products are cask strength and neither sweetened nor coloured. Just what we are looking for. They also claim to be made to 65% from Ugni-Blanc and to 35% from Colombard. We are still noobies in this field, but these two grapes seem to produce our least favorite Armagnacs. Just saying – even…
Armagnac: Domaine de Danis
The Domaine de Danis is located in the north-west of the Gers department and features 35 hectares of vines. The family-owned estate, which has been passed on from generation to generation for more than four centuries, is producing both, wine and Armagnac, made mainly from Folle Blanche, but also Colombard. Danis 1986 (48%): Nose: A…
Armagnac: Château de Lacquy
Welcome to “Yaktober”! Yak (i.e. Armagnac and Cognac) has gained increasing popularity with us over the last year and a half and it was simply about time to dedicate a full month to our new fling. So if you are a long time reader, I invite you to take the journey with us, no matter…
Armagnac: Lafitte, Lafite & Lahitte
We will be having an entire month exclusively with Yak (i.e. Armagnac and Cognac) soonish (Yaktober sounds good to me, eh!?) but still have some background work to do. Among others, that will feature a whole page dedicated to France’s other noble spirits – keep in mind that Rhum is still numéro un. As a…
L’Encantada (Armagnac)
We’ve amassed a huge amount of Armagnacs and while we can navigate the field of Armagnac somewhat reasonably, we don’t know how to pick the cherries exactly. What we know is that we should improve these skills quickly, as there are still many excellent, vastly underpriced (!) Armagnacs around. These gems just want to be…
Single Cask Rum 