Domaine Boingneres Cepages Nobles 48%, Bas Armagnac

Description

Domaine Boingneres Cepages Nobles is a single estate, non-vintage Armagnac. Originally founded in 1807 by Jean Boingnères. They only produce the one non-vintage Armagnac, most of their production is vintage, and this blend of different grape varieties (Folle Blanche, Colombard and Ugni Blanc).

Domaine Boingneres was founded in 1807 by Jean Boingnères and for six generations has maintained the often difficult path of producing only the very best Armagnacs. The estate is located in the commune of La Freche, where the soil, iron-rich sables fauves, is dotted with springs and sheltered by the Landes Forest. This small piece of the Bas Armagnac has soil of a particular lightness, a fine siliceous clay mixed with sand and iron elements where the finest of brandies are produced. It was not until 1953 that the house style Armagnac began to change when Léon Lafitte took over the estate on the death of his father-in-law. Lafitte expanded the vineyard area allowing for larger productions and he also made the decision to try and sell his Armagnac to all of the very best restaurants in Paris. His reputation soon grew and today Boingneres is still considered to be some of the very best Armagnac. Lafitte also set about replanting 22 hectares of vineyards with some of his favourite grape varieties for brandy productions including Folle Blanche (over 14 hectares), Ugni Blanc and Colombard for which he coined the phrase “Cépages Nobles”. Soon a new press house and ageing cellar followed, joined by a new purpose built gas-fired copper still (a Ster Armagnacais, 6 plate, short column alembic to be precise) in 1975 to give the greatest extraction of flavour from the wines.

Today Martine Lafitte, Leon’s daughter, overseas the production at the 21 hectare estate and maintains the Boingnères tradition of excellence. Domaine Boingneres Armagnacs are aged in a very specific way. Each year the distillery produces between 7 and 40 barrels of spirits depending on the quality of the vintage. The Boingnères Armagnacs are distilled to 52% allowing the maximum of congeners to pass over into the spirit. Half of the new make spirit is sent to new charred casks of local Gascon oak, up to 15 casks per year, where it is matured for two years, before it is transferred to older wood. The other half is matured in 2 year old where it remains until required for blending and bottling. There is no blending of vintages after they have reached 6 years old and the separate varieties are carefully watched until Martine Lafitte decides which proportion to blend together, or if the spirits should remain separate. Most of their Armagnac is bottled as single variety vintage but they also produce some Domaine Boingneres Cepages Nobles blends and one non-vintage Armagnac, this one.