Armagnac Sempé

The house of Sempé was founded in 1934 by Monsieur Abel Sempé in Aignan, in the heart of Gascony. In 2002, it became part of Le Club des Marques with premises located in Bas-Armagnac at Villeneuve-de-Marsan. With the large warehouse and ageing facilities, as well as the modern bottling plant of Le Club des Marques, this new venture has opened up a whole new world for Sempé. They have been able to fulfill their French clients' requests, while remaining amongst the leading exporters worldwide. Armagnac is France's oldest brandy, with the first written record of its existence dating back to 1411 thus predating Cognac by some 200 years. Armagnac was born over centuries with the help of the Romans who introduced wines in Gascony. As well as the Arabs who invented distillation and finally the Celts, who taught the Gascons how to make oak casks for the ageing. The boundaries of the Armagnac producing region were established in 1909, and by 1936 the region became known as Région d'Appelation Contrôlée. Sempé Armagnac is obtained by the distillation of white wines from the grapes "Baco, Folle Blanche and Ugni-Blanc". Distillation takes place at the end of the fermentation of the wine using a copper pot called alambic Armagnacais. Armagnac is distilled at a lower temperature than other brandies such as Cognac, and only once, thus keeping the fragrance of its wines during the cooling process. Sempé Armagnac is then aged in black oak casks from Gascony.