2. Armagnac: The terroir and the cultivation of the vines

This article describes the rural landscapes of Upper Armagnac and Ténarèze, where residences in white stone and half-timbered houses bear witness to the region's history and artisanal craftsmanship. Armagnac also has a unique administrative history, briefly being a department in 1790 and requiring several towns to add the qualifier "Armagnac" to their names to avoid homonymous confusion.

The technique of high training, used in the Pyrenean foothills, involves tying the vine shoots to a network of wires to keep the shoots away from the ground, thus reducing exposure to humidity and promoting high acidity in the grapes. The baco blanc and ugni blanc grape varieties, chosen for their low alcohol content and high total acidity, benefit from this method of cultivation to produce quality wines for distillation.