Last night at a friend’s house his mom brought out a 1967 Armagnac for dessert. One of the older and wiser guests, scoffing, said, “Don’t give any to the kids; they don’t know how to appreciate it. Give me more instead.” While he was joking, and his statement was an egotistical ploy to get more for himself, there’s truth to this: I know nothing about the brandies.
I ask the QT3 mind: How does one drink an Armagnac? What’s special about one so old? What do you look for – flavors, spices, textures?
You’d drink it like any other brandy: sipping it slowly, without holding your hand on the base of the glass — you don’t want to warm it too much with your body temperature or it will just taste like alcohol.
Armagnac is a particular kind of brandy made with a slightly different distillation process than other brandies, which makes it smoother.
But don’t let people overwow you with their supposed better knowledge of spirits. The best way to learn is to just try them, and find out what you like.
You put some in your mouth and taste it, if you like the taste you’ll appreciate it.
It’s a brandy. Made in a slightly different way than cognac as Athryn says, but most importantly made in the region of Armagnac. And just because it’s old it isn’t necesarily good.
It’s a strong liquer, so sip it and taste it.
The proper response to this is, “Who is going to enjoy it more, me, or some old decrepit slug whose sense of taste and smell have decayed away in the long, idle years?”
I’ll ask our liquor specialist on Tues if I remember. As far as I know, Hanzii is pretty much right. You pick out a receptacle (usu some sort of shot glass), pour some in, and drink it. Slight chill or room temp, go slow, and don’t mix it unless you want someone to make fun of you.
Next time, call the guy a noob and chug the bottle.
Rum and Coke, or a Cuba Libre! isn’t a bad drink, but in all things, due it’s time.
I personally perfer Armagnac to Cognac. Very good stuff, but its not for everyone. Aged like Cognac, but generally blended (the youngest age is listed as the vintgage). You want something like a fluted rose sniffer glass for this: something with a wide bottom with a narrower top.
Interesting – you’re suppposed to do exactly that when drinking a good single malt scotch. The standard tasting glass is even designed to sit in your hand for that very purpose.
Picked up a couple brandies when we were touring wineries a couple months ago, I’ll have to keep in mind the difference when I crack 'em open :)
That’s exactly the opposite of what I know about brandy drinking. You certainly do warm up the tulip glass with your hand – that’s why it’s shaped the way it is, so that it fits right in your palm. That causes the aroma to dissipate faster and you can properly sniff it.
Warming up brandy to body temperature certainly doesn’t make it smell or taste like alcohol vapors, unless it’s shitty brandy to begin with. Brandy must be room temperature or above to properly unlock the full range of taste. No different than good scotch.
What Chris said.
Which is also why good single malt is better from a brandy glass or something like it instead of the tumblers most people associate with it.
My first answer was glip because it’s not really that much of a science. While the glass makes a difference the important thing is the quality of the liquer and then taking your time tasting it - it makes no difference that it’s armagnac.
It’s not like a really good old armagnac suddenly starts tasting like shit because you used the wrong glass or held it wrong. That’s just snobbery. And a cheapo paint stripper armagnac doesn’t improve much by using the correct glass.
Yeah but he asked about armagnac from 1967… there is No reason whatsoever that a cheap armagnac should survive to this date… it may only be for silly reasons like the bottle was forgotten or such…
If its a good armagnac the price / bottle should be anything like 200 - 300 € and yes thats definitly to good for people who cant appreciate a fine armagnagac…
And dont think thats to snob its only that you will not get the nuances of said armagnac, its the same with expansive wines more likely than not they wouldnt even taste good to not winelovers…
She.
She asked. And yes, you’re right. With that age it’s probably a good bottle and using the proper glasses and all would be the way to go to ensure to experience it’s full potential.
But you don’t need to know any of this to notice the difference betwen an expensive armagnac and a cheap one, even if some uncultured schwein served it to you in a shot glas. And you don’t need know what spices and textures to look out for (I also find it quite ridiculous with the vocabulary used to describe these tastes and apart from obvious ones like ‘smoky’ it’s not eve a shared vocabulary). You just need working tastebuds,
