#35: Choosing our 20th barrel with Nicolas Palazzi of PM Spirits

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For our 20th private barrel, we wanted to do something really special. When we found this single cask of 30 year Argmagnac, we knew we'd done just that. Nicolas Palazzi from PM Spirits educates us on all things Armagnac and samples us on several private casks including our beautiful 30 year.

We've been hearing that Armagnac is the "next big thing" but we didn't believe it. That is, we didn't believe it until Nicolas Palazzi of PM Spirits poured us the most incredible 30 year single cask we've ever tasted. Armagnac is incredibly diverse becase in addition to the different distilling and aging techniques, there's a vast difference in grape varietals. Nicolas has discovered some true gems in Armagnac production. These are tiny family operations that produce only a few casks per year. The 1988 Chateau de Leberon was placed in a "black oak" cask made from local timber straight out of the small traditional column still with no water or additives. It aged beautifully for 30 years and was bottled unfilitered, at cask strength. It's totally undiluted, pure, straight from the cask spirit, and was one of the most stunning drams we've ever tasted!