The Estate

The castle of Maniban is situated at 1km far from the south of the village of Mauleon d’ Armagnac in the very heart of Bas Armagnac area. The castle is constituted of several buildings of different periods which the oldest one dates back to the XVI century.
Frescos from this time have been restored in 1991. They represent doubtless a happy episode of the life of the owners of Maniban, an engagement or probably a wedding.

The different geological elements, historic and climatic explain that the area of Bas Armagnac always produce the more finest eaux-de-vie. The ocean played a preponderant role while depositing sea sands called “tawny sands”. The forest of Landes , very close, is an admirable natural barrier to regulate the temperatures and precipitations. Within the Bas Armagnac, the Grand Bas Armagnac only composed of little towns is an even more privileged territory. Our property is in fact practically joint to these big domains that have for name: Laffitte, Laberdolive, Lacquy.

The Village of Mauleon d’ Armagnac is a part of these ten famous villages that constitute the Grand Bas Armagnac. The Bas Armagnac is considered by all the specialists as the region that offers fruty, supple and very aromatic brandies.

The grapes varieties of the Armagnac give white wines of weak degree but with a high acidity. Our domain of 16 hectares is planted with three grapes:

• The Folle Blanche : (Or piquepoult) centennial grape variety producing fine, often floral and with a great elegance brandies.
• The Ugni Blanc : the grape made for distillation by excellence. It produces fine and quality brandies
• The Colombard: brings fruity and spicy aromas.

Our Armagnacs are distilled in our property with our pot still Orthez that is aged for more than a half century and that received several awards in competitions. The distillation process is done according to the traditional method, in a continuous way and where the wine is burned only a single time, the Armagnacs entitle at the end t between 52 and 54° degrees volume.

Our armagnacs are aged following the tradition in black oak casks manufactured with the tool by the local craftsmen. The casks are new the first year and in order to obtain the maximum of tanin then the armagnac is transferred in more used casks to obtain this incomparable softness. The oak of our casks come from the forest des Landes and from the Gers area , this kind of oak goes perfectly well with our brandies.

Our armagnacs after some ageing years are reduced in oak tank with the method of “petites eaux” that consist in reducing progressively till 40°.We only bottle the armagnac at the moment of the order. We take care personnaly of the production, the distillation as well as the ageing process of our Bas Armagnacs .After that these Armagnacs are bottled at the estate and these ones have obtained regularly for 20 years some awards at the Agricultural National Competition of Paris.