The major difference between Cognac and Armagnac is the distillation
How do you tell the difference between Armagnac and Cognac?
It was feared 2010 would see the abolition of its main grape variety but instead, Armagnac is marking its 700th anniversary.
Armagnac, reflecting the countryside it calls home, is a drink of great variety and nuance – arguably more so than its more celebrated rival, Cognac. Armagnac is one of the world oldest eaux-de-vie, French for "water of life".
The Soil
Over 300 million years ago a vast stretch of sea was linking the Atlantic sea to the Mediterranean. Below the Armagnac region, there are fine quartz sands, continental and river sediments and siliceous clay. The Cognac soils are less rich in diversity: they are predominantly calcareous soils. In Cognac, the vine suffers more. As the old winemaker saying states: the more the vine suffers, the better the wine!
So what, apart from origin, differentiates them? Any analysis of what makes Armagnac special has to begin with the earth.
To stand on the ramparts of Valence-sur-Baïse gazing west over the rolling lowlands of Bas-Armagnac is to stand on the Atlantic sea cliffs of a bygone age. When the waters receded to the Bay of Biscay, they left behind tawny sands and boulbènes – a sand/silt mix – with a high iron content from the nearby Pyrenees. This soil makes Bas-Armagnac the heart of the region, source of the finest and longest-lived brandies, of fruitiness, structure and delicacy.
To the east lies Ténarèze, a mixed bag of chalk-clay soils plus some boulbènes, where the Armagnacs tend to be rounder and richer, but still express their finest qualities only after decades of ageing.
Finally, there is Haut-Armagnac, an L-shaped territory embracing Bas-Armagnac and Ténarèze to the east and south. Chalky soils, highly prized in the Grande Champagne part of Cognac, are less sought-after here, with only a few vineyards scattered throughout the area.
The grape triumvirate
Grapes next, and here the contrast with Cognac is even more evident. While Ugni Blanc accounts for practically the entirety of Cognac production, here it sits cheek-by-jowl with Folle Blanche, the wine grape Colombard, six little-planted curiosities – and the intriguing Baco.
Baco, the only hybrid grape permitted in a French AC, is a crossing of Folle Blanche and the hybrid Noah. Created in 1898 by Landais schoolmaster François Baco, it was a post-phylloxera remedy when Folle Blanche had difficulty grafting onto resistant rootstocks.
The maker of singularly unimpressive wine, Baco is transformed by the boulbènes soils of Bas-Armagnac into a spirit of unbridled power and complexity. Often hard work when young, Baco Armagnacs are softened by long ageing in barrel, sometimes spending decades in oak before they reach their peak of mellow complexity.
We’re lucky to have Baco. Every vine was due to be ripped out by 2010 after a health scare in Canada during the 1990s over levels of ethyl carbonate in imported Armagnac. Luckily, further investigations cleared Baco’s name and the grubbing up plan was abandoned.
The contrast between Baco and Folle Blanche couldn’t be greater. Light and delicate, Folle Blanche is vulnerable to mildew and rot. But in the hands of a master it boasts a jasmine-scented nose with light spices and great finesse – the other end of the style spectrum from structured, four-square Baco. Ugni Blanc is loved here for the same reason as in Cognac, producing wines with high acidity and low alcohol, ideally suited to distillation – giving Armagnac of precision, fine fruit and smoothness.
Ugni Blanc, the grape used to produce essentially all Cognac, is less powerful than Baco and less aromatic than Folle Blanche, but provides structure and tends to accentuate the spice flavors from the oak barrels. It is rarely used alone in making the finer Armagnacs but performs an important role in blending with the other more dominant grapes. Colombard is also sometimes used to make Armagnac, although it is more commonly used to make a local white wine.
Stills and skills Distallation Process
Varied soils; a cocktail of grape varieties; you might expect distillation at least to be a simple matter. You’d be wrong. The traditional method of production, dating back nearly 200 years, uses a single still, the Armagnacais alambic.
The objective of all distillation is to heat wine until it produces steam, capture the flavorants in that steam in a pure and unaltered fashion, and then convert the steam to a liquid spirit called "eau de vie." Armagnac is traditionally distilled a single time in a continuous still known as an alambic armagnacais. These ancient copper stills — ungainly copper contraptions that are frequently mounted on wheels and can be seen on the country roads throughout Gascony in the fall and winter as the "distillateurs" go from vineyard to vineyard distilling each vineyard's production at the domaine — retain many of the flavorants and aromatics that other stills eliminate.
The distillation of Armagnac is both science and art. Under the watchful eye of the distillateur, the wine enters the alambic and warms slowly as it rises through a column intersected with copper coils containing the cooling eau de vie. When it reaches the top of the first column the wine passes into the main column where it cascades down through a number of artfully constructed plates. As it reaches the bottom of the main column, it begins to evaporate due to the carefully maintained high temperature. The rising alcoholic vapors are thereby forced into contact with the incoming wine enhancing the fruit elements so dramatic in Armagnac. As the enhanced vapors reach the top of the main column they flow into the coils where they cool as they descend through the first column, thereby warming the incoming wine and completing the magical cycle of a continuous still.
The use of the single distillation process to distill Armagnac is one of the most important factors in setting Armagnac apart from other brandies. Double-distillation is typically used to produce Cognac, calvados, whiskey and other spirits. Although more time consuming and requiring more aging than spirits produced with the double — distillation process, the single distillation process used to produce Armagnac results in a lower alcohol content which retains more of the wine's aromas and character. As a comparison, Armagnac is typically distilled to 54-58% alcohol whereas all Cognac is required to be distilled to more than 70% alcohol. This difference accounts for greater complexity and fuller-bodied taste of mature Armagnac. Distilling to a lower degree also eliminates the need to dilute the final product with the addition of water thereby permitting certain Armagnac, particularly the older Armagnac, to be bottled at cask strength through a natural process as a result of the evaporation of the alcohol that occurs while the Armagnac ages in the barrel.
As mentioned before, the more you distill a spirit, the more you strip it of congeners, i.e. “impurities.” While taking out impurities in a spirit can lead to less of a hangover, it also lifts a lot of its taste. That is why vodka is more subtle in flavour than whiskey – because it usually has gone through much more extensive distillation (and filtration). Some might argue that for the same reason, Armagnac has a fuller, more complex flavour than Cognac.
Differences in use of varieties between these regions derives from the fact that the produced wine in Armagnac can be consumed without being distilled which is absolutely not the case in Cognac. The white wine of Cognac, very acidic, is almost undrinkable while the wines of Armagnac are very pleasant. As a general rule, the best grape varieties to be distilled should not be too aromatic or they would mark the eaux-de-vie, the quality of the brandy being more related to fermentation aromas then grapes aromas.
How is Armagnac Aged?
The eau-de-vie goes directly from the alambic to barrels made from spicy Gascon oak, or tighter-grained, less influential Limousin oak – to mellow and achieve a peak of wood influence until it matures many years later.
Slowly the oak does its work as it imparts tannin and the spirit begins taking on a golden hue. As the Armagnac ages, evaporation occurs. This loss is referred to as the angel's share ("part d'ange"), and generally results in the loss of 1-2% per year. If the Armagnac is aged in a chai with sufficient humidity the alcohol will evaporate more quickly than the remaining spirits which slowly lowers the degree of alcohol without any dilution
The oak trees used for making barrels only approximately 10% of the wood of each tree can be cut into staves to be used for barrels. Once the staves are properly dried, they are planed and assembled into a barrel holding 400 - 440 liters of spirit. The barrels are held together solely by metal hoops; no nails or glue are used. The cooper frequently stimulates the sweet components of the barrel by toasting the inside of the barrel with a slow burning fire. This toasting plays a critical role in the development of fine Armagnac as it gives colour to the spirit and activates the vanilla scents and other flavours in the wood that ultimately give such wonderful nuances to the mature Armagnac.
Then the eau de vie is transferred into older, more neutral barrels for continued maturation, with the finest, longest-lived often moving into large glass dames-jeannes or bonbonnes after decades in wood.
How does Armagnac evolve as it ages?
Armagnac is clear in color as it comes out of the alambic and goes to the barrel. Ideally, the Armagnac is monitored to make sure that it is transferred from the new barrels to older barrels at the optimum time. These older barrels provide a more neutral home for the Armagnac. During this stage, the color will continue to darken, albeit more slowly, and the aromatic flavours derived from the wood become increasingly integrated with the fruit.
Aeration: Unique to Armagnac
The process of aeration is something that doesn’t happen during the Cognac process. Armagnac producers often move the spirit during maturation. This involves emptying it into a tank and pumping it back into either the same barrel or a different one. This could be an even older barrel, done to reduce the amount of tannins being imparted into the liquid. If the producer considers the brandy to be too aggressive then water might also be added at this time.
Once the aging process is complete it’s common for Armagnac to be transferred from the barrel into Dame Jeanne/Demijohn glass bottles, or even steel tanks.
By the time the Armagnac has aged 8 - 12 years, it typically has acquired an attractive amber colour, the fruit aromas have intensified, and the natural sweetness has become evident. As the aging process continues, normally from 12 - 25 years, preserved fruit flavours arrive, the spirit becomes richer and more complex and the finish lengthens. Many consider this to be the optimum period of aging for fine Armagnac, although, as with the very best wines, each spirit will age differently according to its individual character.
Sales & Marketing: A world apart
Cognac, as you’re undoubtedly aware, has massive global appeal. Much of this is due to the might of big house advertising, such as that from Hennessy, Remy Martin, Martell, and Courvoisier. The mid-sized houses also advertise aggressively, pushing their wares into countries all around the globe.
The world of Armagnac is very different. There are no major houses, no multi-million dollar marketing budgets, and certainly no industrial-level production. The largest of all Armagnac houses is Maison Janneau, based in the town of Condom in the Gers. Other brands of note include Chateau de Tariquet, Duc Moisans, and Chateau de Laubade.
While Armagnac isn’t commonly found in many other countries it is exported—mainly to China and Russia. Around 50% of the spirit is kept for local and national enjoyment, as opposed to that of Cognac, where 95% is exported.
Great Armagnac Comes to Those Who Wait
This lower-alcohol spirit retains many esters, acids and congeners that double-distillation purifies or eliminates altogether. In their youth, these non-alcohols can make the spirit thick, rustic and slightly foxy. Given time these elements oxidize and gain tremendous aromatic complexity. One needs, however, at least 12-15 years of patience.
Unfortunately, the commercial market demands products that are young and inexpensive. Therefore, the blends of many négociants (3 Etoiles, VSOP, Réserve, Hors d'âge) incorporate a percentage of double-distillation (reinstated in 1974) which permits the removal of the non-alcohols and ultimately yields a lighter, more neutral and consumer-friendly spirit that can hit the market after only several years.