Castarede Armagnac

Liquor Wine Cave lists the Castarede Bas Armagnac range in Australia, including the VS, the 15 Year Napoleon, the 20 Year XO and the XO carafe, and single vintages from 1960, 1965, 1970, 1971, 1978, 1980 and 1987.

Castarede is a Bas Armagnac house in Gascony, registered in 1832 and still held by the founding family, now in a sixth generation represented by Florence Castarede. The house is generally described as the oldest armagnac trading house still in business, and the 1832 registration is the basis for that.

Bas Armagnac is the westernmost of the region's three zones and the one collectors follow most closely. Its sandy, iron bearing soils give a spirit with more fruit and less structure than Tenareze, and it is where most of the celebrated vintages come from. Castarede works with Folle Blanche, Ugni Blanc and Colombard, and the family owns Chateau de Maniban at Mauleon d'Armagnac, in the middle of the zone.

What makes this page worth reading rather than skimming is the run of single years. Armagnac is bottled by vintage in a way cognac largely is not, so a specific birth year is a real possibility here rather than a marketing exercise.

See the wider armagnac range, the vintage led Darroze and Delord collections, or the brandy category.

History

Castarede was registered in 1832 and is generally described as the oldest armagnac trading house still operating. The business has passed through six generations of the same family and is now represented by Florence Castarede.

The house is a Bas Armagnac specialist. Bas Armagnac is the westernmost of the region's three zones, and its sandy, iron bearing soils are the reason it gives the fruitier, more perfumed style that most of the region's famous vintages come from. The grapes are Folle Blanche, Ugni Blanc and Colombard.

The family also owns Chateau de Maniban at Mauleon d'Armagnac, which sits in the heart of Bas Armagnac.

What Castarede is known for above all is depth of stock. Armagnac has always been bottled as a single year rather than blended to a house style the way cognac usually is, and Castarede holds a vintage cellar with stock reaching back to 1893. That is why a page like this one carries a run of individual years rather than a tidy VS, VSOP and XO ladder.

The wider armagnac category puts the house in context, and the cognac range is the obvious point of comparison.

How to drink it

Castarede armagnac is served neat, at room temperature, in a tulip glass rather than a balloon. The wide bowl of a brandy snifter concentrates alcohol vapour at the nose and closes down exactly the aromatics you are paying for. Do not warm the glass over a flame either, because heat drives off the same thing.

Give an old vintage ten minutes in the glass before deciding what you think of it. Armagnac opens slowly, and the gap between the first sip and the fourth is wider than it is with most spirits.

The VS is the one to mix with. It makes a good Sidecar, and a long drink with tonic and a slice of orange is a perfectly legitimate use of it. From the Napoleon upward, drink it neat.

At the table, armagnac is a classic match for prunes, dark chocolate, walnuts, foie gras and hard aged cheese. The Gascon habit is to drink it after a long meal rather than with dessert.

Very old vintages develop rancio, a savoury, nutty, almost mushroom note that only comes with decades in wood. It divides opinion and it is the main reason people chase old armagnac.

Store an opened bottle upright and out of the light and it will hold for a year or more. Never lay a spirit bottle on its side, because high strength spirit degrades a cork.

More from this origin and style:

Darroze Armagnac Vintage Collection · Armagnac Delord: The Vintage Collection · Vintages