Cocktails with Armagnac brandy
Armagnac is a French grape brandy from Gascony in the south-west — distilled from wine, usually in a single continuous pass, and oak-aged. It’s one of the oldest brandies and bolder than Cognac: rustic where Cognac is polished.
ABV40%Standard, with cask-strength and older bottlings higher. At 40% it already carries more flavor than a Cognac of the same age, so it holds a stirred drink well.
Substitutes for Armagnac brandy
Grape brandy from a single distillation rather than two, which leaves it fuller and earthier at the same age. A rounder bottle sits where it sat and gives up the rusticity that made the drink interesting.
On the label
- VS / VSOP / Napoléon / XO / Hors d’âge
- The age of the youngest spirit in the blend — VS at least 1 year, VSOP 4, Napoléon 6, XO 10, Hors d’âge older.
- millésime (vintage)
- A single harvest year, bottled and dated — Armagnac’s signature, and something you will almost never see on a Cognac label.
- Bas-Armagnac / Ténarèze / Haut-Armagnac
- The three zones; Bas-Armagnac, on sandy soil, is the most prized.
- Blanche Armagnac
- Unaged white Armagnac, an AOC since 2005 — clear and grape-forward, made for cocktails.
