CARAFE 50 ans (700 ml)

Château de Bordeneuve has matured each vintage year separately in its medieval cellars — some with beaten-earth floors — since the Guasch family first committed to estate-controlled production across every stage from vine to bottle. The 50 Ans CARAFE is the product of that unbroken chain: a blend drawn from the estate's deepest reserves, aged no fewer than five decades in the same cellars where the oldest stocks trace back to 1893.

The estate sits near Eauze on sables fauves — the tawny sandy soils that define Bas-Armagnac AOC's most prestigious terroir. These free-draining, low-fertility sands stress the vine into producing concentrated, aromatic fruit while yielding distillates of unusual finesse, structurally lighter than the clay-heavy Ténarèze to the east.

Distillation is performed on-site through a copper alembic armagnacais dating to 1921, a single-pass continuous still that exits at approximately 56% ABV — far lower than Cognac's double-distillation output — preserving a dense congener load that sustains complexity across decades of oak contact. The blend draws on the house's signature 50% Baco / 50% Ugni Blanc split: Baco, a hybrid now largely restricted to Armagnac, delivers the layered dried-fruit depth; Ugni Blanc maintains structural tension. Maturation proceeds in 400–420 litre French oak barrels of Limousin and Vosges forest origin.

After fifty years, the rancio character — that prized oxidative, walnut-oil signature — is fully integrated, a development almost no age-statement Armagnac at this price tier can replicate outside single-vintage library releases.

The drinking window is open now; further cellaring is a matter of personal preference rather than necessity.