There is something stubborn about a cask that simply stays put. The grapes behind this Armagnac were picked in Gascogne in the autumn of 1937, and ever since the wood has carried on quietly, through decades in which everything else changed. What ends up in the glass is a harvest further back than most people can remember.
The expert's description
Baron Gaston Legrand 1937 Vintage Appellation Bas Armagnac Controlee 40% is a Vintage Bas Armagnac from the 1937 harvest, single distilled in an alambic armagnacais, matured in black oak casks and bottled at 40%.
Bas Armagnac sits in the western part of the Armagnac region in Gascogne, south-west France, and it is traditionally the source of the finest eaux-de-vie. The soil is sandy, and the grapes behind the bottle are Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche and Colombard.
Armagnac is distilled once, on the traditional armagnac column known as the alambic armagnacais. That is exactly where Armagnac and Cognac part ways, since Cognac runs twice through a pot still. Single distillation leaves more of the grape in the spirit, and that character is what the cask then works on.
Maturation starts in new black oak casks holding between 700 and 1200 litres. The fresh wood gives up tannin and the dry timber notes, and once the spirit has taken what it needs, it moves to older casks where the pace slows right down. There it stays until bottling. After this many decades, every trace of sharpness has gone.
Every bottle in the range holds one single vintage. Years are never blended together, and the label vouches for that specific harvest. The bottle arrives in a wooden box with a spare stopper and a canvas bag. Baron Gaston Legrand is owned and bottled by Lhéraud, a French house founded in 1680.
Tasting notes
Nose
Dark and dry. Walnut and dried fig first, then old timber, a hint of leather and that nutty, almost saline note known as rancio. Underneath it all sits a trace of plum.
Palate
Fills the mouth without pushing. Dried fruit, walnut shell, dark orange marmalade and a dry spice note close to cinnamon bark. The tannins are still there, but time has softened them.
Finish
Long and dry. Wood, tobacco and nuts linger, and right at the end a faint plum sweetness comes through, as though it had been saved for last.
Specifications
Name: Baron Gaston Legrand 1937 Vintage Appellation Bas Armagnac Controlee 40%
Bottler: Lhéraud
Region/Country: Bas Armagnac, Gascogne, France
Type: Vintage Bas Armagnac
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Cask type: Black oak casks of 700-1200 litres
Distillation method: Single distilled in an alambic armagnacais
Distilled: 1937
Edition: Vintage 1937
Flavour profile
Rancio · Dried fruit · Nuts · Oak · Spiced
Investment potential
High. The 1937 vintage cannot be made again, and old Bas Armagnac vintages grow scarcer with every bottle opened. The very long spell in oak casks, and the fact that the bottle holds one single harvest, make it hard to replace.
Did you know?
Armagnac is the oldest documented distilled spirit in France. As early as 1310 the prior Vital Du Four listed forty healing properties of the burnt wine from Gascogne, long before anyone had heard of Cognac.
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