In 2019 K&L (the California store) released a couple of casks of Armagnac from a small producer named Domaine le Chaou, bottled by an outfit named Fitte et Laterrade (now defunct). The casks were 30 and 31 years old. Not very much was known about them—I’d learned long ago not to trust too much to K&L’s stories. However, Sku went on about them rather a lot and so I talked myself into buying a bottle of each. Five years later I’m finally opening one of them: the slightly older one. Looking about now for information about these casks, I came upon this wonderful bit of detective work, complete with aerial reconnaissance via Google Maps. You can go read the story there of how these casks came to be. One other bit of interesting information is that these two casks were not matured in the usual way for Armagnac. That usual way sees the spirit filled into new oak casks to start but then transferred a few years later into refill casks for the remainder of the maturation. These, however, were apparently left in the original casks for the entire maturation period. This may explain how it is that these casks ended up in the US. By which I mean that their greater oak contact would probably have rendered them more attractive to the American enthusiast market for Armagnac than to the French market. This because the American enthusiast market for Armagnac is largely comprised of bourbon drinkers who have a high tolerance for oak.

I myself am not terribly enamoured of high oak contact in spirits. And when I first opened this bottle I was disappointed to find that it was quite oaky and tannic. But that was more than a month ago. As the bottle stayed open the oak receded or at least got rounded off by fruit. With about a third of the bottle gone, it’s now very much more to my liking, and here now are my notes.

Domaine le Chaou a Perquie 31, 1987 (49.5%; Fitte et Laterrade; from my own bottle)

Nose: Rich fruit (a mix of dark apricot jam, dried orange peel and cherry), caramel, leather, polished oak. On the second sniff there’s more of the oak and it’s spicier (cinnamon, clove). With time the oak and the richer/fruitier notes are in good balance.

Palate: Comes in with the oak and spice leading the way here and the orange peel following behind. Good bite and texture at 49.5%. Spicier on the second sip. With more time the dried orange peel expands and the whole gets a little sweeter.

Finish: Long. The spice tingles for a bit and then there’s some cocoa powder. With time the caramel emerges here, but it’s got more of a burnt/bitter edge than on the nose.

Comments: Well, this seems to have taken more of an oaky turn again, but not so much as to bother me appreciably. Still, I’ll hope for more fruit as the bottle heads to the halfway point.

Rating: 88 points.