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Guilhon d’Aze XO Armagnac wins biennial Prix Du Président

Published:  27 November, 2018

This year’s Les Talents de l’Armagnac competition in Eauze awarded the top honour to a relative outsider, Guilhon d’Aze Bas Armagnac X0 from Domaine Denis Tastet, in a hotly contested judging round presided over by Harpers editor Andrew Catchpole.

The competition, organised every two years by Bureau National Interprofessionnel de l’Armagnac (BNIA), forms part of a wider celebration of Armagnac as the annual distillation season draws to a close.

The Prix du Président serves as an automatic pre-selection for entry into the Concours Général Agricole de Paris.

Other notable gold medal winners included two golds for Domaine Arton Patrick de Montal (VSOP and 2008), and two golds for President winner Guilhon d'Aze (XO and 2000).

The top XO was chosen from among a strong flight of gold medal winners representing all categories and styles of Armagnac, with 143 samples initially judged by regional producers, with an international panel then giving its final say on the President’s Award and a concurrent Armagnac sur Glace (on Ice) award.

The Armagnac on Ice award, presided over by mixologist Luis Inchaurraga of the House Mixology in Madrid, has become an important part of Les Talents de l’Armagnac, with the BNIA and certain individual producers increasingly focusing on pushing the use of Armagnac in cocktails among the bartending fraternity, with the growing Blanche (white) category to the fore.

The Armagnac sur Glace trophy went to the VSOP from Château du Tariquet, with two further Golds awarded for Blanche Armagnac to Blanche de Pellehaut and Blanche Armagnac Château Garreau.

Harpers will carry a fuller report on the innovation and evolution in the Armagnac region in the new year.



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