Grape of the Art Baron Gaston Legrand 1986 #32 70cl (05/2026)

Grape of the Art Baron Gaston Legrand 1986 #32 70cl (05/2026)

This Armagnac was produced in 1986 by Baron Gaston Legrand from Baco and Ugni Blanc grapes in Bas Armagnac, France.

It matured for 39 years in cask 32 in a dry warehouse and was bottled in 2026 (05/2026) by Grape of the Art at 47.1% cask strength. An Alambic Armagnacais (Column Still) was used for distillation.

For our 30th release we're bottling a first: the first cask strength Bas-Armagnac from Baron Gaston Legrand to reach the market.

BGL is the Armagnac house of Cognac Lhéraud. Their 40% Bas-Armagnac is a reliable crowd-pleaser, approachable and elegant. This time we wanted exactly that character, just undiluted and unfiltered. So we went for this 1986: distilled in December, 39 years in cask #32, bottled exactly as it came out of the cask at a natural 47.1%.

Fun fact: the Armagnac from Baron Gaston Legrand is one of the very few that don't mature in the Armagnac region. After many visits to the Cognac cellars, I was keen to organise a visit to the Armagnac side as well to taste a few casks. Curiously, they were stored at the estate in Cognac, just tucked away in a separate warehouse.

Clément and I had a good laugh when we realised that he had never mentioned it and we had never asked what that other huge warehouse was actually hiding (in plain sight, right next to the tasting room!). As it turned out, Cognac Lhéraud holds a special permit from the BNIA that allows the Armagnac to mature in the Cognac region. So all of the Armagnac moves there very young, and the Cognac team looks after the Armagnac casks as well.

The 1986 was the clear favourite out of a few dozen casks I tasted last year with Clément and Jean-Charles, Guy Lhéraud's grandson and today the house's cellar master and distiller.

Tasting Notes

Flavour-wise this is a classic Armagnac, and I mean that as the compliment it is. On the nose the fruit leads, a mix of stone fruit and dried fruit with almost no wood. On the palate the oak steps forward but never takes over. The 39 years show clearly, yet fruit and wood stay in balance, carried by leather, tobacco and a hint of toffee. The texture is rich and on the heavy side, dry rather than sweet. The finish is medium-long and dry, on dark fruit.

At 47.1% it is intense, but the elegant house style is easy to recognise: full strength without any sharpness, exactly the balance you want from an old cask. This time I'll skip the rum or whisky comparison. It's a great classic Armagnac for Armagnac lovers, and I'd be just as happy to pour it for whisky and rum nerds. The feedback so far has been excellent: at the Armagnac Festival and the Wagemut summer festival, visitors wanted to buy the tasting bottles straight from us instead of waiting for the release.

The Producer

Baron Gaston Legrand is a traditional family Armagnac house in Lannepax in Bas-Armagnac, with around 120 years of history and a stock of old vintages going back to the late 19th century. When the succession became uncertain, Cognac Lhéraud took over in 1998 to preserve this legacy. The two families already knew each other from regional trade fairs.

The estate has 20 to 25 hectares of vines, mainly Ugni Blanc and Baco. On top of that come eaux-de-vie from long-standing partner growers, so the house is producer and Négociant in one. Distillation is done the traditional way in the Alambic Armagnacais, in a single continuous run.

The sandy “sables fauves” of Bas-Armagnac are known as soils for particularly fine, fruity spirits. Ageing then follows the same approach as the house's Cognacs: around one year in new wood, then in older casks. Early on the spirit picks up structure, colour and depth, while later the wood steps back and leaves the fruit and the vintage in the foreground.