Chateau Arton 2010 Single Cask 11 yr #18 Haut Armagnac 750ml

Château Arton sits in the tiny village of Arton, in the heart of Haut-Armagnac, by far the smallest and least planted of the three Armagnac crus. Patrick de Montal and his wife Victoire de Montesquiou took over the property in 1979, leaving Parisian life behind to farm its 88 hectares on the Lectoure plateau, and their son Jean now continues the work alongside his wife Lili. The estate grows every grape it distills, and Patrick de Montal was also the first producer to introduce a white, unaged Blanche Armagnac, a mark of the family's ongoing experimentation within a traditionally conservative region.

This single cask comes from the 2010 harvest, made from estate-grown Colombard and Ugni Blanc and left to age for eleven years before being hand selected for bottling from cask eighteen. Arton favors slow, careful distillation to protect the natural brightness of its fruit, a style suited to the sandier, rockier soils of Haut-Armagnac, which tend to produce Armagnacs with more immediate freshness than their Bas-Armagnac counterparts.

The nose is lively with lime, grapefruit, and a touch of redcurrant, while the palate brings hazelnut over a base of citrus that keeps the spirit lifted rather than heavy. The finish is bright, clean, and energetic.