Domaine La Licorne Bas Armagnac
1978

Soil: "Sables Fauves" (a twenty-metre layer of clayey and very micaceous sand, rich in iron oxide). Numerous marine fossils dating back 12 million years can be found on the plots.

Climate: Warm temperate oceanic climate. Rainfall is abundant and evenly distributed throughout the year (900mm per year). There is plenty of sunshine (1,900 hours a year) and temperatures are mild (average monthly temperature between 5°C in winter and 20°C in summer).

Cultivation: High trellised vines. Single Guyot pruning by hand. Organic protection against fungal diseases (Bordeaux mixture). Deep tillage on all rows. Grass management under the rows by ridging and dethatching. Manual harvesting.

Wine-making: Horizontal press with trays. Fermentation by indigenous yeasts in underground concrete vats. Racking.

Distillation: Traditional Armagnac distillation in a copper still dating from the early 1960s. The column has twelve trays above a double boiler fuelled by natural gas. This still has a production capacity of 1,400 litres of pure alcohol per day.

Ageing: Aged in traditional 400-litre barrels (pièces armagnacaise made from pedunculate French oak). Aged in a dry cellar on a concrete floor.

Bottling: Gradual reduction with osmosed water over 6 months in the original cask to reach bottling strength. Light filtration at bottling. Manual bottling and labelling.