L'Encantada Private Barrel
Domaine De Belair
33 Years Old
Barrel #B6
Distilled: 1986
Bottled: 2020

Cask Strength, No Additives, NCF
53.9%

This Armagnac train is speeding out of the station with a fury!

Listen, whiskey will always be our first love, but to be honest, these Argmagnac barrels are what's really getting us excited this year. It feels like 8 years ago when you could sniff around for a week or two and buy yourself a 20+ year Willett private barrel for a song with no fuss and no muss. Having access to not just 20, but 30+ year old cask strength, single barrel spirits of absolutely top quality is 100% why we started this group.

And for all of you that picked up the last L'Encantada drop, that outrageously sexy 28 year Domaine Lassalle barrel, you know how fucking outstanding it was. Dark as night, with a nose that just keeps evolving across fruits and woods and spices and herbs, the kind of thing you can swirl in your glass for hours and keep discovering new sensations, new angles on the flavor that escaped you before but seem obvious, even dominating as the liquid opens up. Well here we go with an older, sister (first cousin?) barrel!

Remember 1986? Hands Across America. My personal favorite "Party All The Time," Eddie Murphy's pop rock hit?? "I'm only human, born to make mistakes..." "Take these broken wings and learn to fly??" Who am I kidding most of you reading this probably weren't even born yet. Anyway I was in a rather tragic combination of puberty, acid washed denim, braces and cheddar cheese popcorn. It wasn't a pretty year.

But hey, something great did come out of it. At Domaine Belair, a sister vinyard/appilation just down the road from Domaine Lassalle, they were growing some grapes, distitlling some Armagnac, and laying it down in the cellar. Picked up by L'Encantada decades later, and lovingly cared for in Vincent L'Encantada's cellars, this barrel is finally ready for your enjoyment.

Again, the complexity of this spirit is off the charts. The color is like black coffee left over in the afternoon. You pick it up at first and get a huge dose of wood, leather, and raisins. Then as it opens up these wonderful stone fruits come out, tart cherries, prunes, plums. And then as it continues it goes into devilish black licorice, little pops of wild flavors and exotic spices - anise, menthol, cumin. You can keep nosing it for an hour and you'll keep getting layers and layers of different notes. Sometimes chocolate, sometimes fruit, sometimes wood, sometimes spices. It's like a magical little glass of flavor that keeps going and going.

The palate is super balanced, rooted in that massive but soft wood, an oily mouthfeel, bringing the stone fruits and spices together into wonderful symmetry. And the finish is at the same time long but also ghost-like. There's zero percent burn on this, but the bigger proof of 108 on this one comes with a huge lingering flavor profile resting on the spices and black licorice.

Honestly this review may seem absurd or superfluous, but it's from the heart. This is a very special barrel. The opportunity to find 33 year spirits that are this expertly chosen by Vincent and cared for is extremely rare and we're honored to get this barrel and very excited for you to taste it. Check out our podcast with Vincent (warning it's in french with an interpreter) for more details.

Enjoy this special barrel. Cheers / The Beasts!