Armagnac [ahr-muhn-YAK]

from

A fine French BRANDY from the Armagnac region, which is situated southeast of BORDEAUX. The region consists of three subregions—Bas-Armagnac, Tenareze, and Haut- Armagnac. Although almost as highly regarded as COGNAC, Armagnac is of a different style. It’s distilled (see DISTILLATION) only once and, therefore, has a lower alcoholic strength (generally about 53 percent alcohol) than Cognac (about 70 percent), which undergoes a double distillation process. This single distillation also leaves more flavoring elements in the distilled spirit. Armagnac employs the local black oak for AGING instead of the Limousin oak used for Cognac. Black oak imparts more flavor to the Armagnac and allows for faster aging. The result is that Armagnac is silky smooth but fuller-flavored than Cognac, although it generally doesn’t have the finesse of the finest Cognacs.