Château Pomès-Pébérère 1986 #208 70cl

Château Pomès-Pébérère 1986 #208 70cl

For 45 years, François Faget distilled and filled every cask at Château Pomès-Pébérère himself. Only three of them from the 1980s are left in his cellar. We are bottling one of them for you: cask #208, vintage 1986, at 50.9% cask strength.

This is the fourth release in our Armagnac.de series, once again selected together with Shane Pearlman and once again with a label by Harun Zankel. The name “…keeps the Doctor away” is a pun: Pomès sounds like pommes, the French word for apples, and an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Shane finding dried apple rings and barrel aged apple cider vinegar on the nose was not planned. It fits, though.

Please note: this is a pre-order. Shipping starts in November 2026.

François Faget distilled this Armagnac from Ugni Blanc and Baco in December 1986, in the Alambic Armagnacais right on the estate. It aged for 39 years in a 400-liter oak cask in the château's dry cellar and is bottled for Armagnac.de at 50.9% cask strength, without any additives.

My first bottle of Pomès
My first encounter with Pomès-Pébérère was in 2016. For an Armagnac tasting with the C&D Cocktail Community, I ordered a 1964 and a 5 Ans from the Netherlands. The 1964 cost 87.20€. For a long time, the Pomès vintages from the 1960s were an insider tip for old, elegant Armagnacs, first for under and later for just over 100€.

None of them were ever bottled at cask strength, though. The first bottlings straight from the cask only came with Romain Duteuil, the independent bottler behind Le Barreur. As so often, the difference is huge: more layered and a lot more intense. Thanks, Romain, for visiting François with us and for helping us with the bottling!

The end of an era
François has a radiant smile and is bursting with stories. Standing in the cellar with him, he admitted that an era is coming to an end here. His old stills are covered in a heavy layer of dust, and when he stops, the domaine stops with him. He has already leased the vines to a young winemaker from next door, but he still looks after the old casks himself.

That is exactly why we wanted this cask. Right now we can still celebrate François' Armagnac straight from the cask and thank him in person, before his work ends up in blends one day.

Château Pomès-Pébérère
The château sits in the Ténarèze, halfway between Condom and Fourcès, and has belonged to the Faget family since 1820. Its 55 hectares of vines grow grapes for Côtes de Gascogne wines and for Armagnac. A thick layer of clay under the vineyard forces the vines to root very deep. Old vintages from here often show dark, earthy notes like leather, cedar and mocha.

Shane's Tasting Notes
Nose: gooey prunes, dark lightly burnt caramel, dried apple rings, hint of guava, cardamom and cloves, toasted anise seeds, barrel aged apple cider vinegar, biltong.
Palate: Fruity, funky, and even a bit estery. A nice dollop of dark dried fruits, deserving of a fruit cake. Raisins, dried cherries, prunes. Then a dance through all the complexities of oak, without jumping the shark. Earthy tobacco and dark chocolate, a foundation for a proper mole. Pencil shavings. Clove hard candies. Nutmeg and allspice. Guava jelly. Licorice root and herbal bitters lingers, balanced by the chewy unctuous palate.

Sascha's Distillation
Oak forward, with apple and tropical fruit underneath. Intense Armagnac, but not a dark monster.

Pre-orders and timeline
Just like with our first three releases, we only bottle what is pre-ordered (plus a small reserve).

Pre-orders are open until Friday, October 9th, at midnight. Bottling follows right after. Shipping to you starts in November, as soon as the bottles have arrived in Stuttgart.

PS: The label says the bottling date is September 2026. That's not quite right: we had to push the release back at short notice, and reprinting the labels for a difference of a few days wasn't worth it. I hope you'll forgive us the ten days. ;)

US Orders
Please expect to pay 15% tariff on the order value and around 15€ to 25€ for UPS customs brokerage fees (depending on the exchange rate). US customs applies both to all goods from the EU, and we cannot avoid it, unfortunately. UPS charges both directly to you once the parcel has reached the US.