Château de Laubade, Armagnac, 1960

The House: Château de Laubade
Château de Laubade is the largest single-estate vineyard in the Bas-Armagnac — 105 hectares in one unbroken block around a château built in 1870, in Sorbets, deep in the appellation's finest terroir. It's also unusually self-sufficient for the region: Laubade grows its own oak forest and is the only Armagnac house with its own on-site cooperage, meaning the barrels that age the spirit are made, quite literally, from wood grown on the estate.
The Lesgourgues family bought Laubade in 1974, when Maurice Lesgourgues fell for the property and set his son Jean-Jacques to work restoring it; today it's run by the third generation, siblings Denis, Arnaud and Jeanne. Under their stewardship Laubade has become one of the most decorated names in Armagnac — and one of the few houses still committed to distilling all four traditional grape varieties, Ugni Blanc, Baco, Colombard and Folle Blanche, ageing each separately before blending. The estate's cellars hold vintages dating back to 1888, a working archive of the region's history as much as a working distillery.
 
The Armagnac: 1960 Vintage, bottled November 2005
Unlike a blended Armagnac, a vintage bottling is the product of a single year's harvest and distillation — nothing added, nothing blended in from any other year. This 1960 spent 45 years resting in Gascony oak before being drawn from the cask and bottled in November 2005, all of that character built entirely through decades of slow contact with wood, with no further evolution once in bottle.
That length of cask ageing is where a vintage like this earns its complexity — 1960 was a strong year in Bas-Armagnac, and the extended time in barrel has given the spirit real depth and a rancio character that only comes with genuine age, without ever losing the freshness that keeps Laubade's vintages from tipping into pure oak and dried fruit.
 
TASTING NOTES
Colour: Deep amber, with the glowing warmth of over four decades in wood.
Nose: Rancio and candied fruit lead, layered with warm spice and a gentle waft of vanilla — the signature of long, patient cask ageing.
Palate: Fresh and remarkably lively for its age, with real elegance and finesse. White fruits and candied orange zest come through first, followed by liqorice, toasted nuts and a delicate note of ripe peach, all carried on a soft, round mouthfeel.
Finish: Long and refined, drying gently with lingering spice and a final trace of orchard fruit.
Serve: Neat, in a tulip glass, at room temperature — this is a digestif built for slow, contemplative drinking. Good alongside a honeyed curd cheese or wild strawberries, or simply with a short black coffee to close a meal.