Another of Chateau Arton’s excellent “millésimé” (vintage) Armagnacs. This is a rich yet refreshing eau-de-vie, created from a single distillation in 2003. This bottling brings succulent flavours of grape, apples, herbal tea and light toasted spices. The producer, Domaine d’Arton, lies in the Gers region of south-west France. This is part of the Haut-Armagnac terroir region, also known as “White Armagnac” due to the plentiful limestone and chalky clay in the soil. Chateau Arton picked up a gold medal in the 2015 Agricultural Show in Paris for the outstanding quality of their White Armagnac. As with Chateau Arton’s stellar 2001 expression, this has been bottled 45% ABV, but as Armagnac is distilled to low proofs, this could be an undiluted bottling. A truly wonderful, complex Armagnac from a first-class producer, very much reinforcing Armagnac’s position as a “malternative” for Scotch drinkers.