Darroze 1988 Lahitte Armagnac 700mL

Brand: Darroze (Unique Collection)

Release Name: Château de Lahitte 1988 (Single-Estate, Single-Vintage)

Spirit Style / Type: Single-Vintage Bas-Armagnac

Composition: Grapes from the 1988 Harvest, Château/Domaine de Lahitte

Age: 1988 Vintage

Volume: 700ml Bottle (Please Confirm — Most Retailers List This Release as 750ml)

Alc / Vol (%): 47.5%

Country: France

Region: Bas-Armagnac, Gascony (Château de Lahitte Estate)

Cask Type: Aged in Oak, Alcohol Strength Reduced Only Through Natural Evaporation — No Added Water, No Blending, No Colouring

Limited Edition: Yes (Single-Vintage Release — Limited by the Volume of the 1988 Distillation from This One Estate)

Award Winner: Not independently confirmed with a specific score for this exact vintage — a related 1989 Château de Lahitte release from the same house scored 94/100 from VertdeVin

Armagnac Darroze was founded in 1974 by Francis Darroze in Roquefort, Gascony, who pioneered the concept of single-estate Armagnac — the idea that Armagnac, like wine, could be produced and celebrated as an expression of one specific farm rather than blended anonymously. Rather than distilling their own spirit, Darroze roams the Grand Bas-Armagnac region sourcing from around 30 individual family estates, ageing and bottling each one separately in their cellars in Roquefort and Labastide-d'Armagnac. Now run by Francis's son Marc, a trained oenologist, the house celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024 with the launch of the Mixology range — Darroze's first dedicated foray into bartender-focused Armagnac, developed in collaboration with acclaimed French barman Jérémy Lauilhé.

This is a genuine single-estate, single-vintage Armagnac — exactly the philosophy Francis Darroze built his entire house on when he began as a trader and producer of vintage Bas-Armagnacs in 1974, treating each individual farm's eaux-de-vie the way a wine merchant would treat a specific vineyard, rather than blending anonymously across estates and years. Château de Lahitte is one of the privileged, long-term partner properties Marc Darroze (Francis's son and a trained oenologist) has worked with for decades, and this 1988 vintage captures that one specific harvest exactly as it was distilled, with alcohol strength reduced purely through natural evaporation in the barrel — the famous "angels' share" — rather than dilution with water, and with blending or colouring agents strictly prohibited. Independent critic VertdeVin scored a related 1989 Château de Lahitte vintage 94 points, reflecting the genuine quality consistency across this range. A serious, story-rich bottle for Armagnac collectors specifically chasing single-estate, single-vintage expressions — a genuinely different proposition to a standard age-graded blend, and a real taste of one specific Gascon harvest, distilled and matured with minimal intervention.