L’Encantada XO Bas-Armagnac

A decades-old hidden treasure of Armagnac brought within reach.

The Armagnac region of France is filled with small farms that sell their grapes to large producers. But it is a tradition that — during good harvests — they keep the extra grapes for themselves. And there are traveling distillers who go from farm to farm and distill these left-over grapes and the farmers set them aside. Maybe they’ll sell them some day, maybe they’ll serve them as estate drams… who knows. L’Encantada are independent bottlers who literally go from farm to farm buying these casks and blending batches at full strength with no added anything at all.

We love these guys.

L’Encantada XO Bas-Armagnac is made from a blend of four vintage casks from a single vintner. And here’s where it gets REALLY interesting. Those casks range from twenty to thirty years old. Somehow… some way… they came a cross a farmer who had decades-old Armagnac that had been aging undisturbed for decades AND they convinced him to sell. Then, true to form, they bottled it at the natural strength — in this case, 46.7% ABV.

In America we have TV shows like “American Pickers” where two guys go digging through old barns and storage sheds to discover hidden antique treasures. This is like that.

Smartass corner:
There are three primary growing regions for Armagnac — Bas, Tenareze, and Haut. Bas is on the western side of the area.