Prince d’Arignac, Armagnac

Known as the “flame of the terroir”, Prince d’Arignac is a small-scale producer, one of the several typical of the Armagnac industry. Prince D’Arignac is so largely unknown that it has previously been mistaken as an obscure independent bottler of Armagnac. It is in fact a producer from Armagnac. It is not, however, found in the French town of Arignac, which does not lie in the Armagnac region. The title of Prince D’Arignac is not related to any one prince or individual, and it should also be noted that this is not related to the Baron d’Arignac brand of wines. This Armagnac is produced using continuous stills, as opposed to the pot stills found in the cognac and whisky industries. Armagnac is a distinctive kind of brandy produced in the Armagnac region in Gascony, southwest France. It is distilled from wine usually made from a blend of grapes including Baco 22A, Colombard, Folle Blanche and Ugni Blanc, using column stills rather than the pot stills used in the production of Cognac. The resulting spirit is then aged in oak barrels before release. Armagnac was one of the first areas in France to begin distilling spirits, but the overall volume of production is far smaller than Cognac production and therefore is less known outside Europe. In addition, they are for the most part made and sold by small producers, whereas in Cognac production is dominated by big-name brands.