What is a millésime armagnac?

The year on a millésime armagnac is the harvest year of the grapes from which the eau-de-vie was distilled.

The whole bottle comes from that one year. Nothing is blended in from another harvest year, as does happen with a blend. The Bureau National Interprofessionnel de l’Armagnac describes the millésimes as the natural extension of viticulture, with its cycles and its years.

Also look at the bottling year. Maturation takes place in the cask and stops as soon as the armagnac is in glass. A millésime from 1985 bottled in 2005 has had twenty years of wood, and nothing changes about that in the cupboard.

An XO armagnac is a blend whose youngest component has spent at least ten years in wood, whereas a millésime comes from a single harvest year.

With an age statement, the youngest eau-de-vie in the bottle always counts. Article 13 of Regulation (EU) 2019/787 stipulates that a maturation period or age may only be stated if it refers to the youngest alcoholic component.

According to the BNIA, hors d’âge goes beyond ten years and in practice is often above that legal minimum. With a millésime there is nothing to average out: everything in the bottle is the same age.

Armagnac comes from Gascony and has three appellations: Bas-Armagnac, Armagnac-Ténèrze and Haut-Armagnac.

The INAO's cahier des charges describes those three as separate natural environments, each with its own soil and climate. On the label of a millésime it almost always states which of the three it is.

The wines for the eau-de-vie may come from ten varieties: baco blanc, blanc dame, colombard, folle blanche, graisse, jurançon, mauzac, mauzac rose, meslier saint-françois and ugni blanc. The cahier calls the use of vintages an old and common practice in the region.

Every armagnac must mature for at least one year in oak, and there is no upper limit for a millésime.

Maturation takes place in pièces of 400 litres, made from oak from the forests of Gascony or the Limousin. The BNIA reckons with an evaporation of about half a degree of alcohol per year and mentions maturations of twenty, forty and more years.

As a result, an old vintage slowly drops to a strength at which it can go into the bottle. The longer in the cask, the more colour, tannin and wood aroma the armagnac picks up.

Look out for three things on the label: the harvest year, the bottling year and the appellation.

With the harvest year and the bottling year you can work out for yourself how much time the armagnac has spent in cask. If only the harvest year is on the bottle, ask about it before assuming an age.

The appellation says which part of Gascony the grapes come from. Also look at the alcohol percentage on the bottle: some vintages go into the bottle at cask strength, others are brought to a lower strength.