Laberdolive Domaine de Jaurrey 1979...

Laberdolive Domaine de Jaurrey 1979 (44.0%): Laberdolive is one of the most sought-after labels of the Armagnac world... They are expensive, hard to find and also kinda mysterious. They don't have a website, they have zero social media presence, you don't see any marketing material about the brand and you have no chance of finding their bottles while browsing the shelves of your local liquor store. You have to know someone who knows someone to reserve one of the highly allocated and also extremely old fashioned looking bottles. The same Gascon family runs the brand for over five generations and they distill only the wines made from their own vineyards using their own wood fired still and age their distillate in barrels coopered from oak trees harvested from their own forest. Their releases are single-vineyard and vintage dated bottled at cask strength without any additives.

I was sitting on a few Laberdolive samples from different vintages for quite a while. They are mostly saved from bottle shares I was a part of in last two-three years and I thought that it would be a fun set of reviews to give a start to... First one is a 1979 vintage Domaine de Jaurrey and the youngest one in the bunch. It is bottled when the spirit was 36 years old.

Color: Polished copper with a red hue, mahogany with thick, quick forming but slow moving legs.

Nose: Surprisingly fresh and fruity... Red plums, red table grapes and polished furniture. No heavy wood and no dried fruits. Hibiscus tea and strawberry cheese cake. Port or red wine finished malt whisky, ginger molasses cookies and milk chocolate.

Palate: Very pleasant start with an incredibly satisfying creamy mouth feel. It's not very thick but it's not watery either. Ground cloves, touch of cinnamon and ground ginger. Dried strawberries, raspberries and cream puffs. Some lightly toasted oak and four fruits jam.

Finish: Long with paprika, red and white peppercorns and clotted cream.

Overall: I am pleasantly surprised... I don't know actually why I was expecting something more woody and mostly packed with dried fruits but this brandy is quite juicy, fresh and vibrant instead. I loved it... It might lack some depth depending on your expectations from an Armagnac distilled 41 years ago but it's overly enjoyable. I wish I had some small fruit tarts to pair it with now.

Price: N/A

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