L'Encantada Single Cask
Bas Armagnac - Domaine Lassalle
Distilled 1992
Bottled 2020
28 Years Old

47.7% Cask Strength
100% Ugni Blanc
Aged in Gascon Oak
No Additives
Non-Chill-Filtered

Wow. Just WOW! This is without a doubt the most special barrel we've ever had.

Meet our friend Lassalle. It's a single barrel Armagnac from 1992. Twenty-eight years old. Cask strength. No water, no processing, no additives. Everything you're about to taste, all the ingredients, even the wood that made this barrel, comes from within a few miles of the estate. And 1992 was the last year that Lassalle ever distilled. This is it, when it's gone it's gone.

Many of us who used to monogamously obsess over bourbon have discovered Armagnac. Sure, we still love bourbons (and ryes), but what we really get excited about these days is Armagnac. What made Pappy van Winkle and Willett Family Estate so crazy good? Something called The Glut. In the 80's, along with high hair, shoulder pads, and synthesizers, everyone started drinking silly drinks. Sex on the Beach, Melon Balls, Kamikaze's, you know what I'm talking about. Whiskey got left behind. Bourbon was dad's drink. Grampa's drink. Champagne, cocaine, and a neon green cocktail was the flavor of the hour. So what happened to all those stocks of incredible bourbon and rye sitting at Stitzel-Weller, Bernheim, and Willett? Well, they kept sitting there. And they got older. Much older. And they got absolutely glorious. That's why, for a hot minute, you could go out and buy a 23-year-old bourbon for a couple hundred bucks.

Guess what? Those days are over. But there's good news! There's another Glut happening right now. With 21, 25, 28-year old barrels of glorious hooch sitting right there, largely unnoticed, just waiting for a keen eye to pluck them. The same thing that happened in the 80's with bourbon happened in the 90's with Armagnac. Armagnac is the oldest and most cherished French liquor. It's basically the bourbon of the grape world, single column-distilled and well-aged in oak barrels. And when it's done well, it's friggin unbelievable.

That's why the newly exploding Armagnac world is going nuts for L'Encantada. It's a small bottler of hand-picked single barrel Armagnac casks (sound familiar Willett fans?) and they are finding absolute treasures. They also do an incredibly beautiful presentation with their signature orange wax (again, sound familiar?).

This particular L'Encantada is from Domaine Lassalle. It's 100% Ugni Blanc grapes, grown right there on the estate, aged in French Black Oak barrels made by a local cooper. There's no water added, no additives, everything local. It was put into a single barrel in 1992 and aged for 28 years in their cellars, which are the perfect climate for aging Armagnac. The result is absolutely superb. And 1992 was the last year that Lassalle was in production (it later became the now-famous Pibous brand). So this is the final year of Lasalle.

It's dark as fuck, like black tea that's been steeped for hours. The nose is wild. "You want to shrink yourself so that you can dive into the glass and back float for several hours!" exclaims SmokyBeast. Huge stone fruits, like stewed peaches, apricots, & plums. There's an amazing syrupy soda thing going on - cola? Dr. Pepper?? Something like that. There's some big licorice, somehow both sweet red licorice and funky Mike & Ike black licorice at the same time! There's so many layers of complexity to the nose. You can keep going back and getting different notes each time you nose it. Sweet cocoa, pipe tobacco, vanilla, chocolate-covered cherries, black pepper. It's amazing. The mouthfeel is over-the-top buttery. "It's just amazing, this is like nothing I've ever tasted!" says Ben JDDMW. Thick jam & butter. All those notes push right through a beautiful palate. Fruits and candies and wood and spice. Not a hint of alcohol burn, smooth as smooth can be, but so very thick and incredibly flavorful. It's got the flavor of a huge banger, but all condensed and concentrated. Not cloyingly sweet, but perfectly balanced. The finish goes wildly middle eastern spices - allspice, cloves, thyme, wrapped in the sweets and wood. It just keeps opening up on your mouth with flowers and spices and sweets and wood. "I'm a little bit at a loss for words, we're never going to find something like this again, are we?" laments Ben.

We've been waiting with bated breath for this all year. If you are already a big Armagnac fan, you're probably already checking out your cart. If you are new to the spirit, please don't miss out on this amazing find. Trust us, in a few years this type of treat will not be so easy to find and you'll be kicking yourself for not having a couple in your collection!