At Château du Tariquet, the Armagnac XO (aged more than twice as long as the minimum six years) is slightly viscous and smooth in its texture, rich and complex in flavours. Tariquet’s Armagnac du Centenaire, aged in barrels for 23 years, is something else, with its sweet flavours of roasted dried fruit and orange and cask-strength alcohol of 53.5 per cent. (Most Armagnac has 40 per cent alcohol.) Armin Grassa, of the family that owns the distillery, describes it as “an iron fist in a velvet glove.”
