Baron Gaston Legrand 1929 Vintage Appellation Bas Armagnac Controlee 40%

Every winter the distiller travelled from farm to farm across Gascony with his copper still on a cart. He set up in the barn, lit the fire, and the grower brought his wine. That is how the 1929 wine became spirit. After that the cask took over, and it has had close to a century for the job.

The expert's description

Baron Gaston Legrand 1929 Vintage Appellation Bas Armagnac Controlee 40% is a Vintage Bas Armagnac from Gascony, single distilled on an alambic armagnacais, matured in black oak casks and bottled at 40%.

Baron Gaston Legrand is the name given to a run of old single vintages from Bas Armagnac. The range is owned and bottled by the house of Lhéraud, founded in 1680 and working with both Cognac and Armagnac. This bottle holds the 1929 harvest and nothing else.

The base wine is made from Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche and Colombard. As a drinking wine it is thin and sharp, which is precisely what makes it suited to distillation. It goes through the alambic armagnacais once, in a single long stretch, and the spirit comes off at the low end of the strength scale with a good share of the wine's aroma still intact.

The first cask was new black oak of 700 to 1200 litres, and it pressed tannin and dry wood into a spirit that was still raw. Once the wood had given what it had, the spirit moved to an old cask, where maturation turns quiet and even, and there it lay until bottling. Decade by decade it lost both sharpness and edge.

Tasting notes

Nose

Dried peach and vanilla open it up, ripe and dry at the same time. Underneath sit plum and a note of old furniture wood, and at the end a breath of lime cuts through.

Palate

Full-bodied and calm. Baked fruit and nut through the middle, vanilla rounding it off, and a dry bitterness from the oak that keeps it from turning heavy. The alcohol barely registers.

Finish

Medium-long to long, dry and nutty, with a faint peppery note that hangs on in the palate.

Specifications

Name: Baron Gaston Legrand 1929 Vintage Appellation Bas Armagnac Controlee 40%
Bottler: Lhéraud
Region/Country: Bas Armagnac, Gascony, France
Type: Vintage Bas Armagnac
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Cask type: Black oak casks of 700-1200 litres
Distillation method: Single distilled on an alambic armagnacais
Distilled: 1929
Edition: Vintage 1929

Flavour profile

Dried Fruit · Vanilla-Sweet · Nutty · Dry

Investment potential

High. 1929 survives almost exclusively in old cask stores, and once a cask is empty there is no more. Age and scarcity make this an obvious bottle to set aside.

Did you know?

An alambic armagnacais runs in one continuous pass, and the spirit is never sent back through for a second round. That is why more of the heavier aroma compounds make it into the finished spirit, and those compounds are what give Armagnac its full, slightly rustic character.

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Frequently asked questions about Baron Gaston Legrand 1929 Vintage Appellation Bas Armagnac Controlee 40%

Does Armagnac keep developing in the bottle?

No. Development stops the day the spirit goes into glass. A 1929 Bas Armagnac is exactly as old as the years it spent in cask, and stored properly it will taste in ten years the way it tastes today.

Is the 1929 vintage a sensible thing to invest in?

The potential is high. Vintages from the late 1920s exist only to the extent that old casks still stand in Gascony, and that number falls every year. Scarcity, age and the reputation of the house are what carry the bottle as a collector's item.

Which glass suits it best?

A tulip-shaped glass or a standard tasting glass. The wide cognac balloon is actually a poor choice, because it lets the alcohol take up too much room. A glass that narrows at the rim gathers the dry fruit and nut aromas and sends them upward.

Why is it bottled at 40%?

Because decades in cask bring the strength down on their own, and because the range holds that strength throughout. At 40% the soft tannins and the dried fruit come through most clearly, without alcohol settling over the aromatics.

What does Appellation Bas Armagnac Controlee mean?

It is the protected designation of origin for the western part of the Armagnac region. The designation sets requirements for grape varieties, growing area, distillation and maturation, much as the rules do for the Cognac Houses and Distilleries further north. Bas Armagnac is the sub-region with the sandy soils and is regarded as the finest of the three.

Does it work with food?

Yes, it holds up well after a meal. Dark chocolate, roasted nuts and dried fruit echo the same notes already in the glass. A mature hard cheese also works, while anything very sweet will paper over the dry wood underneath.