It’s not a secret whisky has become very expensive in the last few years, and people searching for value are looking out for well priced alternatives, such as Rum, Armagnac. For some reason Armagnacs are still not very popular as other aged spirit, and you can find excellent 
stuff for very affordable prices. Even Armagnac from the 1930’s /1940’s and such are so cheap (relatively) that you can get bottles from before WWII , for less than you would pay for a 25 year old whisky, which is insane. Seems that people are discovering this, and Armagnac prices are on the rise (Rum prices have been rising for some time due to demand and interest) but still, it’s a good point in time to stock on those. I was really glad that my NL mate Sjoerd decided to do an Armagnac bottle share , and I happily secured a few interesting one, including 80’s 90’s , but also 50’s and 60’s and a couple of 1930’s Armagnac. Wicked!
I am by no means an expert on Armagnac and have taste only a handful of good ones until now, but I am really having fun with those, and since I am quite a fan of big oaky notes in spirits, I think old Armagnacs are really the stuff I’d appreciate for that matter. Let’s start with a duo 20 year olds, and then work our way to older stuff from the Saint Christeau label. I decided not to award scores for the bottles I am about to review which are not whiskies, so here are my notes, sans scoring.
Saint Christeau 1990 – 2009, 40.6% , €33.65
Nose: Nice wordiness , sweet grapes, with cinnamon and hints of baked fruit. Vanilla custard and more oak and nut and raisin chocolate.
Palate: Oily and sweet with milk chocolate , spice and sweet toffee, pepper and clove.
Finish : Sweet fruity with nut and raiding chocolate and kirsch.
Saint Christeau 1987 – 2007 , 40.6% , €36.75
Nose: There’s more oak here than the 1990 and I love that. It feels deeper with more kirsch and ripe grapes and a hint of dark rum.
Palate: Deep and darker with dark fruit. Mostly date and plum chocolate and spice. Lovely caramel candy.
Finish : Long with the dried fruit and ripe grape and spices. Lots of oak and wood spices.
Bottom line:
I really enjoyed both Armagnacs, yet I feel the 1987 is a bit richer, oilier and more appealing to me, although the 1990 was very good too. Loved the chocolate and dried fruit notes, with the spice and enough oak to balance it all. really good stuff.
At under 40 EUR!!! this is awesome VFM. think about the sort of whiskies you can get for under 40 bucks in NL.. mostly young NAS, and entry level whiskies which are not even in par.
images credit : http://www.cigarpro.ru/