The Montesquiou family has been firmly rooted in the soil of Gascony since 1040. Its most famous descendant is Pierre de Montesquiou d’Artagnan, a musketeer who served Louis XIV for more than 40 years and was eventually made a Marshall of France. French novelist Alexandre Dumas used him as the basis for the like-named character in The Three Musketeers. Centuries later, another Pierre de Montesquiou, a politically ambitious Armagnac merchant and co-founder of the Confrérie des Mousquetaires de l’Armagnac, founded the Société Produits d’Armagnac in 1936. This company of brokers spread the word and promoted Armagnac eau-de-vie around the world thanks to the international diplomatic relations that Pierre maintained with various embassies.
In 1965, the Société Produits d’Armagnac was bought by Pernod, which planned to develop an Armagnac site that would encompass everything from vineyards to bottling. The Château de Campagne d’Armagnac and its 90 hectares of vineyards were purchased, and a still affectionately known as “La Casserole” was moved to its new location. To further centralise activities whilst expanding capacity, new premises, including a one-of-a-kind chai by the name of “La Cathédrale” were built and put into operation in Eauze in 1975. The design of the new site was led by the renowned Patrix office, whose approach to transforming the industrial environment and aesthetics through the targeted use of colour can still be seen in Eauze today.
In 2021, Alexander Stein bought a majority stake in Société Produits d’Armagnac with the aim of restoring Marquis de Montesquiou to its former glory. Known for founding the gin brand Monkey 47, Stein comes from the traditional German brandy dynasty Jacobi 1880, of which he is also the brand owner. Since 1955, only three cellar masters have succeeded one another, passing down the house’s expertise in Armagnac production from generation to generation. As both conductor and guardian of the house style, the cellar master sets the tone and brings harmony to the entire ensemble.
Armagnac is a truly unique and captivating spirit, capable of expressing the rich history and originality of Gascony in a single sip. For the team at Marquis de Montesquiou, blending is not a duty but an art, a delicate interaction between man and nature, with the ultimate goal of achieving sensory harmony. Armagnac is a protected designation of origin and the oldest spirit in France. It is distilled in a continuous Armagnac still and aged for many years in French oak barrels. Its production remains a traditional, artisanal process involving three key stages: winemaking, distillation and ageing, each requiring a high level of craftsmanship and expertise.
