The hilly Armagnac region in the foothills of the Pyrenées, between the Adour and Garonne rivers is a historic comté of the Duchy of Gascony (Gascogne), established in 601 CE in the southwest of Aquitaine (now France). The first Count of Armagnac was Bernard le Louche (). When Gascogne was linked to Aquitaine by the Treaty of Meaux, 1229, the county of Armagnac was the most powerful of the fiefs of Gascogne. After much fighting in the Hundred Years War, during which the Armagnacs were identified as major supporters of the French cause, when Gascony was completely recovered by France in 1453 it was not a political unit. The three great territorial lords were the count of Armagnac, the count of Foix, and the lord of Albret.

Armagnac has given its name to its distinctive kind of brandy or eau de vie, made of the same grapes as Cognac, and undergoing the same aging in oak barrels) but without double distillation. Armagnac production is overseen by a Bureau National Interprofessionel de l'Armagnac (see external link).

External link

• BNIA Armagnac official website (http://www.armagnac.fr/intro-flash.asp)