Where Is Armagnac Made? Gascony and Its 3 Sub-Regions

Where is Armagnac made?

Armagnac is made in Gascony, the old province bounded by the Garonne to the north, the Atlantic to the west, and the Pyrenees to the south. The appellation sits inland, with rounded hills in the west and more sharply cut valleys in the east. The area includes 245 communes in the Gers, 29 in the Landes, and 18 in Lot-et-Garonne.

Grapes must be harvested, made into wine, and distilled in those communes, and the spirit aged and finished inside the area. A handful of communes, including Mont-de-Marsan in the Landes, count for aging and finishing only, so grapes grown there can't become Armagnac.

Three towns help you find your bearings. Eauze is considered the capital of Bas-Armagnac, Condom anchors Ténarèze, and Auch sits in Haut-Armagnac.

Don't picture wall-to-wall vines. The landscape is a mix of woods and farming in which the vine is often a minority. There are about 20,000 hectares of vines across the Armagnac region, shared with Côtes de Gascogne wine and Floc de Gascogne, and only about 5,200 are identified for Armagnac. Our guide to Armagnac's rarity explains what that small footprint means for supply.

Armagnac regions: why there are three

Bas-Armagnac, Armagnac-Ténarèze, and Haut-Armagnac follow one another from west to east across distinct soils and climates. The center is a transition between the wetter, more oceanic west and the drier, more continental east.

Regular Atlantic rainfall shapes Bas-Armagnac. Moving east through Ténarèze, summers become drier, and Haut-Armagnac feels the strongest continental influence.

Western vineyards sit mainly on acidic tawny sands and silty-to-sandy boulbènes. Clay and limestone become more prominent toward the east, while Ténarèze mixes the western and eastern soil types. Our guide to how Armagnac is made picks up the story at the still.

Bas-Armagnac: the western heartland

Bas-Armagnac covers western Gers and neighboring communes in the Landes. Its main towns include Eauze, Nogaro, Cazaubon, and Labastide-d'Armagnac. This is the wettest and most oceanic part of the appellation, with acidic tawny sands and silty-to-sandy boulbènes.

Bas-Armagnac produces about 66% of all Armagnac. Its spirits are broadly associated with a light, fruity, delicate style, though grape, producer, cask, and age can shift an individual bottle in other directions.

Ténarèze: the transitional middle

Ténarèze, legally Armagnac-Ténarèze, covers northwestern Gers and southern Lot-et-Garonne. It centers on Condom, with Vic-Fezensac and Montréal in the Gers and Nérac and Mézin in Lot-et-Garonne. Its transitional soils mix boulbènes with clay-limestone terreforts, and its climate sits between the wetter west and drier east.

Ténarèze produces about 33% of all Armagnac. Its spirits tend to be fuller-bodied and can benefit from long aging.

Haut-Armagnac: large and sparsely planted

Haut-Armagnac covers the east and south of the appellation, entirely within the Gers. Auch, Lectoure, Fleurance, and Marciac are its main towns. Vineyards are sparse across limestone and clay-limestone hills, with some boulbènes in the valleys, and the climate is the driest and most continental of the three sub-regions.

Haut-Armagnac produces about 1% of all Armagnac.

Armagnac regions compared