Last Night's Tipple

One of the virtues of most whiskey (and whisky) is that labeling is very straight-forward. Most (but not all) of the better versions will have an age statement on the label, and that age statement reflects the age of the youngest spirit that goes into the blend. Now, age doesn't tell the whole story, of course. Different spirits in different locations and different barrels age differently. But it is better than nothing.

Leave it to the French to make things difficult. Most (but not all) of the big-name Cognacs and Armagnacs use a system of labeling that tells the consumer next to nothing. In this system, there are three grades: VS (Very Special), which must contain brandies at least 3 years old; VSOP (Very Special Old Pale), which must contain brandies at least 5 years old; and XO (extra old), which must contain brandies at least 6 years old. Wouldn't it be simpler and more communicative just to use the same system that the Canadians and the Americans and the Scottish and the Irish use for age labeling? Of course it would, but that's not the French way.
Cerbois is one of the more readily-available Armagnacs on the market, at least around here. I don't claim to know much about brandy in general or Armagnac in particular, but I have noticed that every Armagnac that I've tried has this interesting almost-burnt-toast aroma going on. It's not present in any Cognacs or other brandies that I've tried. I actually like it, but it is unusual. As for the rest, well, it smells and tastes like brandy. I enjoyed it, but there is a reason that I typically drink whiskey instead of brandy.

Last Night's Tipple

Armagnac is Cognac's poor country cousin. Both Cognac and Armagnac are regions in southwestern France, with Armagnac to the south of Cognac in Gascony, that give their names to distinctive kinds of brandy. But Cognac gets all the glory, and Armagnac is not well-known. Both Cognac and Armagnac are primarily based on the Ugni Blanc grape, which makes bad wine but very good brandy. Cognac, though, is double-distilled in copper pot stills, while Armagnac is (usually) distilled only once in a distinctive continuous still. I have heard this still called a column still, and I suppose that it might be. Here's the problem, though. Everything that I've read indicates that the Armagnac still was invented in the 18th Century, but the modern column still was invented in the early 19th Century by Aeneas Coffey. So reason dictates that the Armagnac still must differ in some ways from the column still. In addition, note that Bourbon producers, in an attempt to raise production and lower costs, attempted to make Bourbon with a single column-still distillation (ie, they dispensed with the traditional second distillation in the doubler or thumper). It didn't work. The Bourbon produced by this method was not good. Brandy is different from Bourbon; but if something was missing from a Bourbon produced by a single column-still distillation, it seems reasonable to think that something might also be missing from a brandy produced by the same method. But nothing is missing from Armagnac, which suggests to me that the continuous stills that Armagnac producers use differ in some important particulars from traditional column stills.

Armagnac is Cognac's country cousin in another way, too. Cognac (at least good Cognac, which is not what most Cognac sold in the US is) is polished and urbane. Armagnac is not. At its best, it's bolder and more rustic. Armagnac is subdivided into three subregions: Téranèze, Haut-Armagnac, and Bas Armagnac. Bas Armagnac is widely acknowledged to produce the best brandy. My drink last night was Grassa et Fils Bas Armagnac Cuvee Speciale. There was no age statement on the bottle, but its color was dark enough that it must have been in barrel for a number of years. It had the same metallic nose that I associate with Cognac, but there was a good bit of vanilla and soot on the palate. It had more personality than most Cognacs that I have tasted, and I liked it. Unfortunately, I won't be drinking it any more: last night's drink finished the bottle, and it doesn't look like it's imported into the US anymore. Alas.