Castarède XO Bas Armagnac

As always, Castarède exceeds legal requirements, this time by a country mile. XO Armagnac has to be aged 10 years minimum - Castarède's is 20 years old. With a glorious, coppery topaz appearance, its intense, vibrant nose shows bags of character: raisins, marrons glacés, cigar box, sandalwood, and prune. The full-bodied, harmonious palate shows notes of rancio (a quality achieved through very long barrel maturation), magnificent complexity, and length. A fine, sipping Armagnac is up there with the world's foremost brandies.

With more than 175 years of experience, devotion, and work, the Castarède family knows how to select the best possible Bas Armagnac grapes in addition to growing its own, on its estates in the region. After fermentation into a fine acidic, light wine, the crucial distillation process follows in Armagnac stills. Maturation is in oak barrels for twenty years, which is more than three times the statutory minimum for XO Armagnac.

Enjoy on its own after a fine meal, or as Florence Castarède puts it...A superb Armagnac to savour by a log fire.