Collection: INTRODUCING
Domaine du Cardinat

Domaine du Cardinat is an excellent, very small domaine in Bas-Armagnac run by Patricia and Malkeet Singh. They are doing stellar work in both the cellars and the
vineyards, producing powerful, elegant single-vintage Armagnacs principally
featuring the Bacco grape.

Cardinat is a family business: Patricia, an oenologist, spent time at pioneering natural winemaker Marcel Lapierre in Beaujolais, before taking over the distillery with her husband after the death of her father Camille in 2010.

Patricia heads up the vineyard side, taking care of the property’s 5-hectare collection of old vines, some dating back to 70 years old. All of their Armagnacs are distilled from estate fruit; they have the four principal regional grapes on the beautiful property which overlooks the Pyrenees — but Bacco and Folle Blanche make up the majority of production.

After distillation, the spirits start their life in new oak before being transferred to older barrels where they are cared for under the watchful eye of Patricia’s husband, Malkeet. Making great Armagnac seems to be principally about having an excellent custodian to take care of the vintages as they age and one of the hallmarks of Cardinat is the couple’s exacting cellar work — knowing the right time to transfer spirits between barrels, to aerate, or to leave a barrel alone.

Most of their bottles currently on the market were distilled by Patricia’s father Camille in the 1990s and 2000s, but the couple is now starting to sell some of their own vintages as well, which bear all the same fingerprints that we love in the older Cardinat juice – the future is bright for this small but powerful domaine!

We visited with them during a recent trip to France and have selected a number of casks that we’re going to release throughout the year, starting with this one distilled by Camille in 1994.