Story: Armagnac, France’s oldest Brandy: Six hundred years old and still no respect

In a world of homogenized, blended-to-fit-the-taste-of-the-masses products, Armagnac stands out for its complex character and rich bouquet of fruit, flowers and spices. France’s other grape-distilled brandy, the better-known Cognac, knows that surprises are unwelcome attributes among those of good breeding. Cognac’s image of elegance and sophistication demands consistency, from year to year, that can only be achieved through careful blending and aggressive marketing. Before uncorking your bottle of VSOP Cognac, you want to know that it will taste the same as that 1978 or 1984 or 1992 bottle that so impressed your friends.
Armagnac, in contrast, is a hand-crafted brandy. A bottle of vintage Armagnac, even from the same producer, will vary in taste from year to year. So many variables are involved--the type of grape, the weather, the soil, the distillation process, the aging in oak barrels, the Armagnac producer’s methodology and skill--that every vintage is unique.
The single-distillation process used to produce Armagnac gives it more time to age in casks made from local black oak, helping it to develop a more subtle, complex character, than Cognac, which uses a double-distillation process that removes more of these flavor-enhancing secondary components. Almost 500 different volatile substances have been detected in Armagnac, giving high-quality Armagnac more aromatic components than any other type of brandy.
Armagnac, which dates from around the mid-14th century, had at least a century and a half jump on Cognac, which didn’t appear on the commercial market until the late 16th century. But Cognac is produced in the Charente and Charente-Maritime regions, which made it easily accessible by river, the primarily mode of commercial transportation in the Middle Ages, to the Bordeaux wine traders who used brandy to fortify wine before shipping it to northern Europe. The Gascon region in southwestern France where Armagnac is produced is much more isolated and lacks navigable rivers for transporting goods.
Armagnac also lacks the marketing clout of Cognac. The major Cognac houses that buy distilled spirits from producers than age and blend it have used men’s lifestyle magazines and billboard advertisements to position it as the ultimate luxury liquor. Armagnac, at least the traditional sort that is distinguished by its uniquely distinct flavors, is mostly sold by men in overalls whose tasting rooms consist of a table and chairs, and several bottles of vintage Armagnac that they’ve been nurturing for the past decade or so.
Almost as much Cognac evaporates during the aging process used to produce the 159 million bottles of Cognac sold annually as the 5 million bottles of Armagnac sold each year. The brandy market in France is evaporating, as well, with stricter driving laws forcing people to forgo their brandy digestif following a meal with several glasses of wine and young French people in bars drinking whiskey--a trendier drink, in their minds--than the brandy that their elders preferred.
Growing brandy markets such as Russia, India and China have increased Armagnac exports somewhat, but Armagnac lacks the marketing muscle and the big brand names needed to attract the newly affluent there. And Armagnac that does find its way overseas is not the traditional Armagnac appreciated by brandy connoisseurs. The majority is blended and bottled for export by Armagnac houses that seem to have stolen a page from the Cognac book of marketing.
Like many other handcrafted products, steeped in tradition, vintage Armagnac is more a labor of love than a mass market product. Family Armagnac businesses that have been around for generations are slowly disappearing as children choose alternative careers that don’t require investing in oak barrels and waiting ten or more years to recover their investment. Those elderly farmers who sell several bottles a week from their dwindling stocks to supplement their retirement are undoubtedly one of the last of their kind.
Since finding exceptionally good vintage Armagnac on liquor store shelves is virtually impossible, you’ll most likely have to travel to the Gascon region to procure your own. That’s not really such a bad thing, however, as the beautiful region is steeped in history, filled with scenic castles and fortified villages, and known throughout France for its excellent cuisine.
Armagnac may not, as they believed six centuries ago, be able to raise the dead or energize one’s libido, but one taste of traditional, vintage Armagnac will demonstrate why it has been so appreciated all of this time.
# # #
Tom Fiorina, like Gascon’s favorite son, d’Artagnan, would rather face 30 members of the King’s Troops than drink an on-the-rocks Armagnac and Coke cocktail.