Talk:Armagnac (drink)

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Contents 1 Discussion header 2 Puzzling statement 3 Bouquetieres 4 Confusion 5 Ageing requirements

[edit] Discussion header

Three regions in Europe? Are we not counting Calvados?

Any suggestion on how to pronounce this?

We are indeed not counting calvados, which is produced from cider, not from wine.

The pronounciation of "Calvados" is quite straigtforward. "Armagnac" is pronounced "Armaniac", with a short "i". [aRmaɲak], in International Phonetic Alphabet. Rama 19:17, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

The fact that Calvados is produced from cider in no way alters its status as a brandy and an officialy demarcated brandy producing region.

Cognac is produced in alembic stills, while most Armagnac is made in column or continuous stills.

Armagnac is often aged in Monlezun black oak, Cognac is usually aged in Limousin or Troncais oak.

This article contains several unnecessary value judgments as to the quality of various brandies.

[edit] Puzzling statement

The article says "Ageing in the barrel removes a part of the alcohol by evaporation .... When the alcohol part reaches 40% or more, the armagnac is kept in large glass bottles" This seems to imply that aging continues until this is reached, and - but wait - it is going to start at 40% or more! What really happens? Notinasnaid 13:40, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bouquetieres

I miss a statement to the bouquetieres or bonificateurs used in the Armagnac production !?! --Symposiarch 10:18, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Confusion

"Along with cognac in Cognac, France and sherry in Jerez, Spain, it is one of only three officially demarcated brandy regions in Europe." Perhaps I'm missing something, but how is sherry a demarcated brandy region, if sherry is a fortified wine, which I have never known to be a subset of brandy... -Verdatum (talk) 12:20, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ageing requirements

The article states

"In the case of assemblies, the age on the bottle refers to the youngest component. An "XXX" or "VS" armagnac is a mix of several armagnacs of at least two years of ageing in wood. For the VSOP, the ageing is at least five years, and for XO, at least six. Richer and more interesting flavours appear from 15 or 20 years of ageing, or more."

It then goes on to state

"Ageing Requirements for armagnac are:

   * VS [Very Special] " XXX "- at least one year old
   * VSOP [Very Superior Old Pale] or Réserve - at least four years old
   * XO, Napoléon, Extra, Vieille Réserve - at least five years old."

I do not see how these two claims are consistent - and I am not competent to decide which, if either, is correct. Any experts? --Silver149 (talk) 16:15, 27 January 2008 (UTC)