Last week’s booze review was of an Armagnac. That was a 31 yo from a mystery producer that was bottled in 2019 for K&L in California. This week I have another Armagnac. This adds 9 years of age and was bottled in 2024, not for a liquor store but the prominent Facebook brandy group, Serious Brandy. And it’s not from a mystery producer but the very well-known Chateau de Pellehaut located in the Tenareze production region. I very much enjoyed the only other Pellehaut I’ve reviewed—this excellent 17 yo—and am hopeful that this much older cask will be at least as good. This cask, along with a much younger Armagnac from Domaine du Cardinat, was selected by Steve Ury, the Artist Formerly Known As Sku, the evil mastermind who runs Serious Brandy with an iron hand. Well, Steve may be corrupt and capricious but he does have a good nose for brandy and he’s told me that if I don’t say so he’ll throw me out of the group and have me deported. What a great guy he is! Let’s taste the great brandy he picked!

Oh yes, this is distilled entirely from the Ugni Blanc grape, if you care about things like that.

Chateau de Pellehaut 40, 1983 (46.5%; bottled for Serious Brandy; from my own bottle)

Nose: A bit of oak at first but it’s quickly supplanted by fruit (dried orange peel, a touch of apricot). The oak then gets stronger and spicier on the second sniff as some leather emerges to join it. The sticky notes expand too: now there’s some caramel and some toffee. As it sits there are baked notes: think pie crust encrusted with brown sugar.

Palate: The spice leads the way on the palate; the citrus comes in strong after that and then it turns spicy and drying again as I swallow. Good depth of flavour and texture at 46.5%. Sweeter on subsequent sips but the fruit doesn’t develop any complexity.  With more time the cinnamon and clove from the finish emerge earlier and the whole gets a little earthier as well.

Finish: Long. The spicy oak is the top note here but the fruit sticks around as well. With time there’s quite a bit of cinnamon and clove.

Comments: In many ways, a mellower, less-oaky version of that Domaine le Chaou from last week. The fruit is brighter here and, on the whole, there’s better balance. There’s no greater complexity, however, for the nine extra years of age. It is nonetheless very pleasurable and confirms my feeling that Armagnac is my favourite flavour of bourbon. I’ll be interested to see how the battle of oak and fruit plays out over the life of this bottle.

Rating: 89 points.