Domaine D'Ognoas 1968 Bas Armagnac

Bas-Armagnacs that are 50 years old are rare: the most obvious reason is that traditional armagnacs come out of the still at 52% ABV, and if you lose somewhere between .2 or .3 degrees a year, in 35 years or so, you would be at the legal limit of 40% ABV from which an armagnac can be sold. It's only in extremely humid conditions of a storage chai that armangacs can hope to evolve the way that this 1968 has. Imagine, in 1968, man had not yet walked on the moon, Jimi Hendrix was still alive, Richard Nixon was beginning his presidency and the Beatles had not yet released Abbey Road. So what do we have here with the Ognoas after 50 years? The answer is an impressive, impeccably aged armagnac. Dried fruits (prunes, cherries), aged saddle leather, polished sandalwood, walnuts and woodsmoke. The fruit continues to hang on, despite this armagnac's age, and its finish lasts for several minutes. Excellent stuff!  Charles Neal, The Armagnac Man

Domaine d’Ognoas (pronounced Dahn-yo-haas) is located in Arthez d’Armagnac. This section of Armagnac from the Landes department is unofficially known as the Grand Bas-Armagnac. The village itself is not much to see; pass the small eighteenth century church and its attached cemetery and you’ve pretty much seen the entire town. If you were to sit and linger for a moment surrounded by fields of corn, hay and grapes, every few minutes a car will pass by. Not much is happening here, the Arthez of today is more of a crossroads than an actual village. In pre-industrial France, the area was full of small farms and growers that worked their land and contributed to a number of cottage industries on a small scale. In those days of bustle in Arthez, there was one large Domaine in the town occupied by a family of noble birth.

 Ognoas as an estate can trace its history back to the end of the 11th century. After passing through the hands of several noble families, Etienne Lormand purchased the estate in 1770. It continued in the Lormand family until 1847 when the last of the Lormand name died without leaving an heir, quite a problem in those days. As a result, the estate was bequeathed to the Church. After the house and its property were transferred from the Church to the State, the regional government took over the property. In the latter part of the 20th century the domaine was used as both a showcase for the region’s products and also a school for those that wanted to learn about farming, winemaking, or distillation. The pride and joy of the Domaine is its Alambic still, the oldest functioning column still in the Armagnac region. The d’Ognoas still was built in 1804, it is lit every year and does the age old work of converting wine into clear eau-de-vie in one run. The vineyards used by the domaine have undergone a change in the modern era. There used to be much more Baco 22-A planted, but now Ugni Blanc and Folle Blanche make up the vast majority of the plantings. Any vintage release after the 1990 will have very little Baco in the final blend. D’Ognoas produces about 115 barrels a year. All the Armagnacs see new oak for about 10 months (the barrels come from the local cooper Bartholomo), then progressively move into older barrels where they pick up less tannin and begin to concentrate their flavors.