There are 135 official mountain rescue dogs in the Swiss canton of Valais. The St Bernard story began in the year 962 when Bernard of Menthon founded a monastery and hospice in the Swiss Alps. The monastery, situated at 8000 ft was on a route over the Alps from France to Italy and in a particularly treacherous spot, where the monks were able to provide shelter for lost or injured travellers. By the time Bernard was canonised in 1681, the monastery he founded had started to keep dogs, which the monks found helpful in carrying out their rescue missions. They… Read more

Right from the 15th century, the English Kings have come and gone from the armagnac producing region we know as Gascony. The is near perfect for the production of the wines and brandies which have been enjoyed and shipped all over the world. The fruitier flavours than those from the cognac region to the north, and the slightly coarser qclimateualities of armagnac have created a uniqueness that cannot be rivalled anywhere else in the world. The lower distillation range and use of the vertical plate stills, whereby only a single distillation is necessary, is suited well to the fruitier Folle… Read more

Armagnacs, as we have discovered earlier, are distilled at a lower range than the cognacs made a couple of hundred miles to the north, and for some reason the alcoholic strength seems to diminish more slowly than does cognac. The barrels have traditionally come from the local forest of Monlezun which locals believe have emphasised the heaviness of the spirit, which comes from a combination of both the soil and grape varieties. Due to the shortage of the local Gascon oak, producers have been forced to experiment with the cognac woods from both the Limousin and Tronçais forests. This has… Read more

The armagnac still in its most used current form is a relatively recent invention, first perfected by a local peasant known as Verdier, who gave it it’s name in the 19th century. Rather like cognac, a super heater is used to warm the wine before it passes into the top of the still, to pass down over the plates until it reaches the bottom one. The spirit rises back to the top and is passed back to the condenser or super heater where it passes through coils, warming the wine as it goes. It is of course a very efficient… Read more

The wines of armagnac are fairly basic, in itself no bad thing. The traditional winemakers eschew the use of sugar, sulphur dioxide and other additives, instead relying on the natural yeasts in the grapes. Unlike the Cognaçaise, wines in Armagnac may be pressed with the continuous presses which are forbidden in Cognac. These are often clumsily operated and allow through pips, skins and other impurities which in many cases further improve the richness of the spirit. This is further assured by the use of the continuous still which allows the spirit to be made without having to stop and recharge… Read more

The Armagnaçaise have two advantages over their rivals; the Cognaçaise operate on such a large scale that they do not generally offer brandies from individual estates and unlike the Armagnaçaise, they did not until the mid 1960’s have the legal right to date their brandies. For the past 40 years every French restaurant worthy of a Michelin star has offered a range of single estate single vintage armagnacs. In 1973 when Janneau started to market single vintage armagnacs, Etienne Janneau said, “It was our only weapon against the Cognaçaise, the individual vintages created our image of quality”. Vintages are controlled… Read more

The dominance of cognac in the French spirit markets has created over the years a market inferiority complex, perhaps partly because the region has always been much poorer than regions to the north, but also because understanding of the spirit and its history has never been fully explored. The Bureau National Interprofessionel de l’Armagnac (BNIA),  is much smaller than its Cognac counterpart and cites some of the benefits of the golden nectar, especially the therapeutic qualities claimed by one doctor of medicine, Prior Vital Dufour who was ordained Cardinal of the Catholic church by Pope Clement in 1313. Amongst some… Read more

Phylloxera was no less kind to the Armagnaçaise than to those in the rest of France and although a few growers managed to continue producing grapes, the vast majority lost everything they were growing in their vineyards. The Folle Blanche was much in favour in Gascogne, but was also one of the most vulnerable to the louse which found the weakened roots of the heavily cropped vines a wonderful source of food. Many small producers simply gave up and turned their land over to crops that provided easier and more importantly, faster and more accessible revenue. The decline in available… Read more

Two important changes happened in the 19th century that changed the fortunes of the Armagnaçaise for the better. The first was the introduction of the continuous still which is essential for extracting armagnac’s particular qualities. The cognac stills used previously were unsuitable for wines from the sandy and clay soils around much of the region. They were also too expensive for the peasants, who needed a simpler and more easily transportable still which could be easily moved from farmhouse to farmhouse, and which used cheaper fuel. They became quickly interested in the continuous still, invented by Edouard Adam from Montpellier…. Read more

During the 16th century, a spirit distilled from a wine in Toulouse known as aygue ardente or eau de vie became popular with the Dutch to supply their ships. They were happy to buy their the spirit at Bayonne, which after some time became known as Armagnac, and was found comparable in quality to the brandy from Cognac. Local historians claimed its international fame, but in reality armagnac remained something of a rustic curiosity. This was a puzzle since the region had an ample supply of acid wine and plenty of wood to burn. It had contact with the Dutch… Read more