Winegrowers’ portraits
La Bastide d’Armagnac
At the heart of the Bas-Armagnac area, half on the municipality of La Bastide and half on the village of Saint-Vidou where the owner's parents rest, Folle Blanche, Colombard and Ugni Blanc share the 24 hectares of the vineyard on a clay-siliceous soil.
The harvest is done mechanically with special dumpers allowing the collect the juice from the bottom tray. Two vats of 30 and 40 hectolitres are dedicated to blending. 70 hectolitres of must per hectare will only give about 10 hectolitres of eau-de-vie in the end…
Distillation time covers an average period of 13 to 15 days. “In 2007, when we produced 39 casks of 400 litres, the distillation lasted three weeks. In 2006, it extended over only five days”, explains Martine Lafitte. The Sier-type still, a unique gas or wood model built by Mr Broustet, is monitored round the clock. The coil of about 62 meters long and the famous gooseneck allow a continuous distillation, characteristic of the elaboration of Armagnac, at 52°.
The bottling is made according to the sales, since the alcohol ages only in barrel. In the cellar, time goes by, slowly, and improves the invaluable brandy whose vapours escape.
Initiated very young to family traditions, Martine Lafitte has a weakness for the Folle Blanche (literally translated: White Madwoman). But the varietal is sensitive and “goes crazy” quickly, resulting in a large variation in the quantities produced depending on the year. “For the bicentenary of the Domain in 2007, we produced 79 hl of pure Folle, she says. In 2010, to celebrate my late father’s 100th birthday, I chose to work only this grape. Each tun will stay in the tranquillity of the cellars for long years of ageing ...” The Domain devotes to it 14 hectares, more than half its vineyards.
Its grapes give the great Armagnac Boingnères its elegance, its femininity, its floral and ethereal side. The “masculine” notes are brought by the Colombard. As for the Ugni Blanc, it creates the link between the varietals in the blend.
On the occasion of the General Assembly of the A.S.I. and the opening of Vinexpo, Martine Lafitte offered a bottle of her wonderful Bas-Armagnac Folle Blanche 1981 to Shinya Tasaki, President of the Association de la Sommellerie Internationale; to Serge Dubs, Vice-President Europe; to Philippe Faure-Brac, Gérard Basset and Paolo Basso, all three Best Sommeliers of the World.
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