Baraillon "Folle Blanche" Bas-Armagnac Review Trio: 2002, 1998, 1995

Not gonna lie, friends: I've got an absolutely silly amount of scotch I need to review over the next few months. And so to keep my street cred, such as it is, I'm going to be interspersing all that stuff (the fodder of the common whisky channels) with the nerdiest rum, yak, agave, and other such reviews I can come up with.

Today it's Baraillon, very probably my favorite Armagnac house. Located in Lannemaignan right between Mont-de-Marsan and Éauze, it's an estate owned by the Claverie family and it has a cellar that looks like it might collapse at any moment. Their standard-line brandies are utterly magnificent; I recently did a flight of six and half of them hit the 90s (   • Baraillon Bonanza: 2001, 1989, 1985, 1982,...   ). What I haven't explored much is a more recent line they only kicked off in the late '80s and into the '90s, brandies made entirely from the original grape of the region: folle blanche. I've previously only had one Baraillon Folle Blanche, a 2011 I thought was very very good but not mind-blowing (   • Folle Blanche Yaks: Baraillon Folle Blanch...   ) - but today I'm trying several that are considerably older. So here we go, three Baraillon crazy whites, in reverse chronological order...

Domaine de Baraillon Folle Blanche 2002 Bas-Armagnac (SCEA Claverie, Lannemaignan; bottled 1/29/22; 45% ABV), 87+2=89/100
Domaine de Baraillon Folle Blanche 1998 Bas-Armagnac (SCEA Claverie, Lannemaignan; bottled 2/8/22; 41% ABV), 88/100
Domaine de Baraillon Folle Blanche 1995 Bas-Armagnac (SCEA Claverie, Lannemaignan; bottled 11/19/22; 43% ABV), 89+/100

All of these are tremendous Armagnacs, full stop. The 2002 presents very "normal" and "safe" as far as Baraillon goes but then becomes absolutely ballistic with water, thickening up a ton and letting its freak flag fly. Terrific, and water is not optional. The 1998 is more openly weird, with a mud-and-cleaning-supplies character supported by a foundation of glorious Baraillon structure; it does get a bit more civil with water but not to any deep change in quality, and the fact that something this good and this interesting is taking DFL in this flight should tell you something. And then the 1995 tastes like it should be far older, with l'Encantada nerds fighting over it: loads of rancio of different kinds, with wood and fruit for days but also a lot of the musty umami citrusy weirdness that makes Baraillon so fun. Buy with confidence, as they say.

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