Le Domaine L'Armagnac
Making Armagnac
Making Armagnac Our grape variety is the Ugni-Blanc. This is the most used variety in the AOC Armagnac.
The vine requires to be maintained all year long. In winter pruning and bending, suckering in spring, Thinning in summer.
In the beginning of october, the harvesting machine make fall the grapes.
We press the grapes to obtain a juice, called 'must'. For each full press, we schedule three cycles of pressing. This process takes 2 hours to complete for each full press.
In the vinification tank, the 'must' naturally transform itself to wine (alcoholic fermentation).
From december, the white wine is distillated in the alembic "armagnacais". We need 5 litters of white wine to produce one litter of Armagnac.
About six hours after the distillation begins, the first eau-de-vie comes out the alembic. It is colorless and contain 52 percent of alcohol.
In our chai (a oldering cellar), the eau-de-vie will become Armagnac. With the years spent in the oak barrels, the eau-de-vie obtain its beautiful color and gain in taste while loosing some of its alcohol.
At the domaine de Lapeyrade, the Armagnac will remain at least 10 years in oak barrel before we begin to sell it or use it to produce dried prunes in Armagnac or Armagnac liquor.
With time, the Armagnac is getting better. If you come to see us, you will taste 10 years olf and 15 years old Armagnac to taste the difference. You can also buy one of our Armagnac as old as the 1970, which as spent over 40 years in oak barrels!
We only sell vintage (millésimé) Armagnac: That means we don't mix years of production, unlike the Armagnac selled under the denominations three stars, VSOP, XO and hors d'âge. That way, we preserve the specificity of each year. Whenyou order a specific year of production, you know exactly how long the Armagnac has stayed in oak barrels of our chai.
