deVine Thoughts

Author: Dirk Chan

In the early 1970’s, Francis Darroze hunted throughout the Gascony countryside for the best barrels of Armagnacs from various estates. In more than 40 years, the Darroze Collection grew and today there is a very impressive selection of 250 different Armagnacs from 30 properties spanning more than 50 vintages. Francis’ son Marc, a trained oenologist takes care of the Armagnac aging today.

Bas Armagnac is a region in southwest France near Gascony, is one of three plantation areas in the Armagnac area where grapes for the distillation of the Armagnac eau-de-vie can be cultivated. This distinctive brandy is distilled from grapes Colombard, Ugni Blanc and Baco 22A. Volume of production is much smaller than the more famous Cognac region. Armagnac is only distilled once (versus twice in Cognac’s), and is the oldest brandy distilled in France, and in the past was consumed for its therapeutic benefits.

While the law required a minimum of ten years of aging in oak barrels, Darroze will wait 15 or more years before releasing. deVine did a special order for the Darroze Collection of single estate and single vintage Bas Armagnacs for your consideration. Most of the vintages we’ve selected are those vintages where wine at a world wide level were not as successful, so as to provide vintage dated spirits for those hard to find birthyears. Thus we have five bottlings ending with the year of 2 for those turning 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 in 2022. Very limited availability on these, so grab while supply lasts.