Lionel Osmin, Apothicaire de l’Armagnac Baco 2005/2009 (50cl, 57%) Lionel Osmin & Co

Get to know: Lionel Osmin, L’apothicaire de l’Armagnac Baco 2005 (50cl, 57%)

Tasting Note

Lionel Osmin aim to highlight the original Armagnac grape varieties (10 possible in the appellation) and give each of their cuvées a clean and authentic style typical of the South West of France.

Made using the Baco grape variety which is particularly adapted to the sandy soils of Bas-Armagnac where it offers ample, intense and high character eaux-de-vie but which requires prolonged aging.

Producer Info

Lionel Osmin & Cie is a négociant house based in the South-West of France making wines in partnership with contract growers. The company was founded by Lionel Osmin in 2010 and has gone on to build a strong reputation in South-West France.

Lionel Osmin & Cie have also formed special partnerships with various distillers of Armagnac in Gascony. This has enabled them to put together a small portfolio of high quality, singular Armagnacs.

Their approach uses a simple distillation in a continuous still, typical of the region, the eaux-de-vie are aged in 400-litre Gascon barrels and no blending between different years, to keep the identity and singularity of each eau-de-vie. Each release has a date of bottling to know, by difference with the vintage, the number of years actually spent aging in oak barrels, the only real guarantee of the slow and natural evolution of the eau-de-vie. There is no reduction using small waters that would dilute the brandy, and no addition of dye or aging accelerator. The wines are always distilled without SO2 protection and no further sulphites are added.