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. Continue reading →