Castarede Armagnac

General Information from "Exploring the World of Armagnac" (Jul 2018) by Jason Wilson

Florence Castarede, the sixth generation owner, claims that her family’s estate was the first registered House of Armagnac, in 1832. There are still vintages in the cellar dating back to 1888, which I tasted several years ago when I visited the Castarede family’s 17th century Chateau Maniban (I’ll always remember that 1888’s aromas of a perfectly worn leather jacket and dried flowers in the pages of old books). Florence insists on softness and not aggressiveness. “My cellar master has a feminine touch,” she told me. Castarede has 16 hectares of vineyards in the heart of Bas-Armagnac, growing Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche, Colombard, and a tiny bit of Baco.