The château’s 22ha of grapevines are planted with three of the region’s key varieties: Baco, Folle Blanche and Colombard, all of which are harvested, vinified, distilled and aged individually. Distillation is via a traditional wood-fired Armagnac still, built in 1939 and still in use today. The slow distillation process produces just two barrels of eau de vie a day.

Lacquy’s spirits are matured in traditional 420-litre oak barrels, with nearly half of all eau de vie resting in brand-new oak barrels each year. These are produced at the Bartholomo cooperage in Le Frêche, less than 10km from the estate.

Once filled, the barrels rest in Lacquy’s purpose-built warehouses, which date back to 1876 and are made of stone and wood, with terracotta roof tiles. These materials – along with thick walls, narrow windows, and an earthen floor – ensure constant humidity and a relatively consistent temperature, which are ideal for the ageing of Armagnac.

Once mature, Lacquy will blend together Armagnac from its three varieties in different proportions, either from a specific vintage or for a minimum age statement. The resulting assemblage is left to rest in cask for several months, before being transferred back into 420-litre barrels, where it will remain until it is time for bottling.

If a particular barrel shows exceptional qualities, it is reserved for the château’s Fûts Uniques (Single Barrel) series. The label on these editions states the number of the barrel and how many bottles it has yielded – often fewer than 600. Armagnac is only drawn from barrels and bottled when sales require it. Importantly, Château de Lacquy does not add boisé (oak extract), sugar or colouring to its Armagnacs, and there’s no reduction with water: all products are bottled at the natural strength found in barrel.

Some of the estate’s Armagnac is bottled as a distinct vintage and by individual grape, providing a rare chance to explore and compare aged spirit distilled from one single producer and from the same vintage, albeit across a range of varieties.