ARMAGNAC ENCANTADA: A New Independent Bottler in Armagnac

Armagnac L'Encantada

K&LWINES tells us all about it!

L’Encantada is a new armagnac independent bottlerwhich has been bringing out excellent Armagnacs says K&LWines.

To understand what makes this stuff special, you have to understand a little bit about Armagnac. French brandy production, especially in Armagnac, is much different than the American distilled spirits industry. There are a few large producers, but by in large, Armagnac is made by farmers and wine makers who distill some of their extra grapes in a travelling still that comes around to the farms.

Many of them just stick the casks in their barns and basements, a little bit here, a little bit there. Eventually they will bottle them, maybe for family and friends, maybe for small markets, or sell them to a larger company that bottles brandy or even makes liqueur; it's sort of a Gascon retirement fund.

L'Encantada was essentially knocking on farm doors and asking to buy these casks.  They have casks from around seven small producers, a number of which only made brandy for a limited time, and all of their brandies are bottled at cask strength without additives.

Source and Read More at: K&LWINES.com

The Calvagnacs: The Gallic Version of a Scottish Whisky Tour

For many decades people have visited France for wine tastings or winery tours of Bordeaux, Burgundy, etc...  Now, this has become an international hobby and even the focus of a vacation.

More unique has been people touring spirits production regions, with Scotland and the Bourbon's trail leading the way in this matter. However, I have been meeting or directing an increasing number of people to what I would call "The Calvagnacs' Trail" that is the Gallic version of a Scottish whisky distillery tour = Calvados + Cognac + Armagnac. These trails are often visited separately but I think it makes sense to organize to tour them all at once because of the local proximity of all things in France.  It takes about 10 hours of driving from the north to the south of France. I am not saying you can do the Calvagnacs' trail in one day but you could do it if well organized in 4 days and up.

I am not sure of any enterprises doing this already but it would be a fun thing, as we see people worldwide growing interest for distillation and spirits.

For further reading and entertainment I stumbled across this very nice article in the Washington Post which relates this matter.

Washington Post, Paul Abercrombie, Published: May 4 2012,  "France’s cognac country: So much to drink in". http://tinyurl.com/76hcn32

Cognac Paradis - The Calvagnacs: Calvados Cognac and Armagnac Maps

Sources:
map: www.calvados-lauriston.com
map: www.thecognac.fr
map: www.armagnac.fr

Cognac and Armagnac - It is Like Salt and Pepper

Cognac Paradis - Armagnac Baron de Sigognac VSOP

John W. Fischer in his blog published on November 5th 2011, gives us a rare explanation of what is cognac versus armagnac but also he offers an interesting view on why someone may select armagnac over cognac. The number of people who prefer armagnac over cognac is very limited. I often find that these people do not have a single valid reason for why they prefer armagnac (I will below give you my rational for preferring armagnac). In addition, preferring one over the other is like preferring salt over pepper. You need both in life because their are different and complementary.

At the end, comparing the 2 and saying which one is better makes no sense. But if I had to guess which one people think is better I would say that over 90% of the time people prefer cognac over armagnac. The driving reason for this may be that people do not know armagnac as much as they know cognac. There is 25 times more cognac than armagnac being produced. That just does not make it better - it is just a fact. Armagnac is 200 years older than cognac but that does not make it better either. Cognac has grown faster because of its natural proximity to the ocean which favored international trades for centuries. Remember 95% of the cognac is exported, and this percentage has been pretty much the same since it was created. Anyway, it was created by foreigners for foreigners  (quickly and over-simplified explanation but pretty valid).

Cognacs are generally assembled (blended) for the sake of creating the most balanced products. In many cases, the blends include over 100 different cognacs. Hence, they are smoother than armagnacs where the spirits are much less blended. Also, cognacs are distilled two times whereas traditionally armagnacs are distilled 1 time. The more you distill the smoother it gets. Passed 2 times you are removing significantly the characteristics of what you are distilling. So as a rule of thumb, 1 distillation are for eaux-de-vie, where the spirits are the expression of the fruits being distilled.

2 distillation is good balance where you have the best of both worlds: enough purity and still the complexity and typicity of what you are distilling.

--->Why vodkas are distilled 20 times? The worst the "stuff" you have fermented to generate alcohol the more you need to distill to get to neutrality. Plus some people are pretty bad at distilling so they need more times.

--->Why some vodkas are distilled 9 times or more ... (1) it is a marketing gimmick, and (2) they are not good at it. It is like someone telling you a joke and they need to repeat their joke 5 or 10 times to get you to laugh. Either the joke was bad or they were not good at telling the joke.

Going back to armagnac. Advanced spirits tasters look for single grape armagnacs made of colombard or made of only folle blanche. And since it is only made of a single grape one should taste a difference. That is a plus point of armagnacs as they more often make this distinction. The truth is you should taste a difference if the armagnacs are less than 5 years old but passed 5 years old the armagnacs or anything that is aged for that matter start tasting the same. So if someone starts spending a lot of money on very old armagnacs, and even more money because they are single grape armagnacs they are only being snob! Sometime people just know enough to get themselves in more trouble!

However, I will give you some valid reasons why someone may prefer Armagnac in another postings to keep things short and parsimonious.

Link to John Fischer's article: http://tinyurl.com/8x297zk