Exploring the World of Armagnac

BY JASON WILSON | JULY 19, 2018

Armagnac is perhaps the most wine-like of spirits, and so it makes sense that, at Vinous, we begin our foray into the high-proof world of liquor by looking deeply into this classic brandy from Gascony. The profiles of 24 top producers as well as the tasting notes and ratings on about 80 bottles found here represent perhaps the most comprehensive guide to Armagnac available outside of reference books.

Armagnac can show many shades of color, depending on several factors, including age, wood, grapes and terroir

Why start with Armagnac? I’m one of the few critics who’s written extensively on both wine and spirits, publishing books on both over the past decade. I’ve always viewed Armagnac as existing on common ground for enthusiasts of both. Surely, Scotch and bourbon have their legions of aficionados and collectors. Yet when I see whiskey prices these days, I have to scratch my head at the insanity. It’s not just the coveted Islay single malts selling for over $1,000 or the fact that a bottle of 20-year-old Pappy Van Winkle cracks the $2,000 threshold. Run-of-the-mill bottles of ten- to 15-year-old bourbons, ryes, and Irish whiskeys now regularly sail north of $100, many north of $200. When I see an 18-year-old rye selling for $450, or a bottling of Dewar’s (Dewar’s!) with a price tag of $499, I know the madness has taken over. So, in this report, I’m suggesting we look elsewhere for brown-spirits value. 

If you’re the sort of person who enjoys bourbon or rye or even Scotch, there’s never been a better moment to give Armagnac a try. Producers are using older and older brandies in their blends, creating great spirits that offer notable complexity and value. New regulations, released in April by the BNIA (Bureau National Interprofessionnel de l'Armagnac) have streamlined the age categories, making the spirit slightly easier to understand.

Still, Armagnac remains a bit of a mystery in the English-speaking world, for various reasons. First, you cannot tiptoe around a basic fact: Ours is not a brandy-drinking culture. When people talk about brandy, a famous line from Samuel Johnson is often quoted: “Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.” By Dr. Johnson’s definition, America is fairly lacking in heroism. Sadly, those who dismiss brandy miss out on unimaginably delicious nectars full of history and craftsmanship.

Barrels aging quietly in an Armagnac cellar

Some of it is lack of education or awareness. I used to teach a class on fine French brandies at a wine school in Philadelphia. I always began with a simple question: Can anyone define brandy for me? Usually, I was met with blank stares. And so I would start at the beginning: Brandy is a spirit distilled from fermented fruit, rather than fermented grains. That fermented fruit can be grapes (i.e. wine), or it can be apples, pears, cherries, peaches, plums, raspberries or – in the case of some inventive distillers – Asian pears, quince, or the buds from Douglas fir trees. The two most coveted brandies in the world, Cognac and Armagnac, begin life as wine.