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Armagnac
Appears in
Published 1987
On a market day in Eauze, one of the great centers of commerce in Gascony, you can see men buying and selling Armagnac the old way: opening the bottle of brandy, rubbing a few drops into their palms, cupping their hands, sniffing, looking for extraordinary depth and aroma, which are the signs of a great Armagnac. Some say you can find the scent of violets when Armagnac is young, and of peaches and vanilla when it matures.
Others use vivid words like “ripe plums, ” “crushed hazelnuts, ” “prunes, ” “violets, ” “sun-ripened peaches”—the comparisons spin out. But the words I like best come in phrases more simply grasped: “taste of the earth, ” “dancing fire, ” and “velvet flame.” For you do not merely drink Armagnac; you sip it, sniff it, and literally breathe it in. The initial excitement comes at the first inhalation. It is here that the gout de terroir, or taste of the earth, is experienced. The glass, warmed in the hand, causes fumes to rise from the liquid. And at their first contact with the tongue, you are touched by the “dancing fire.”