In Armagnac, the Romans introduced the vine, the Arabs introduced the still and the Celts the barrel. Armagnac was born from the confrontation of these three cultures.

The culture of the vine in this privileged region dates back to Roman times. The superb mosaics discovered at the Gallo-Roman Villa of Séviac bear witness to this; the most beautiful, with their volutes all in bunches, vines and leaves, evoke the grape harvest.

Later, towards the end of the 6th century, the Vascons invaded the country that would bear their name, which in 670 would become the first Duchy of Gascony. While studying the name Armagnac, historians have found the traces of a knight, Herrman, companion of the fiery Clovis, to whom a fief was given in reward for his bravery. Latinized by the medieval capists, Herrman would have become "Arminius", until the local language took it over and changed it into Armagnac. In the 10th century, a small county with this glorious name was born in Gascony.

Armagnac is the oldest brandy in France: the first testimony of its use dates back to the year 1310, when Master Vital Dufour, Prior of Eauze and Saint Mont, praised in Latin the 40 virtues of this Burning Aygue in his book "To keep healthy and stay in good shape".

Then, its history is intimately confused with that of Gascony. In the 15th century, between 1411 and 1441, evidence of its commercialization appears. According to René Cuzaq, Armagnac is, from 1461, a common product on the market of Saint Sever in the Landes.

A water of immortality: at the origin, this mysterious product, almost touching on alchemy, is hardly consumed. It is said to have therapeutic virtues... Water that burns: "aqua ardens". A water of immortality with complex aromas and flavors.

The mentions of eaux-de-vie in Gascony multiply until the 17th century, when traces of a real Armagnac market can be found in Mont-de-Marsan and Aire-sur-l'Adour.

In the 17th century, the Dutch bought almost all the wines of the French Atlantic coast, except those of Bordeaux, which belonged to the English. They then went up the Garonne River and concluded their first contract with the winegrowers of the Gers. Fearing competition, the people of Bordeaux intercepted convoys going down the river under the pretext that no wine other than Bordeaux could be transported by river. If wine is forbidden, alcohol is not, and so they start distilling wines in the Gascony region. From then on, the Dutch bought large quantities of alcohol in Armagnac, which served to enrich and stabilize the wines they supplied to the peoples of Northern Europe.

Around 1730, eau-de-vie was a true commercial product that was subject to the fluctuations of the years, good or bad. To make up for the shortcomings, the brandy was stored in wooden casks that had been known since the Gauls and, oh miracle! a treasure was discovered: the color, the roundness and the best scents that aging offered as a legacy...

In the 18th century, the American War of Independence gave an additional boost to business. From the second half of the 19th century onwards, some of the region's merchants built cellars, watched over the ageing process and tried to make Armagnac known and appreciated for itself. Concerned about their reputation, the quality of their eaux-de-vie, and the durability of their businesses, the merchants were already seeking to improve the quality of their Armagnacs. They are therefore beginning to carry out very meticulous blending operations, to carry out rigorous aging controls and to control their stock and the characteristics of each batch.

In front of the Hérault and Gironde regions, the Gers becomes the leading French wine-producing department. But the Armagnac vineyard also suffered the scourge of phylloxera in 1870. Of the 100,000 hectares of vines, only a quarter was replanted.

The region is organized: the Decree of May 25, 1909 delimits the production zone of Armagnac eaux-de-vie and its three regions, the Decree of August 6, 1936 defines the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée Armagnac and its conditions of elaboration.

Armagnac was then traditionally sold in barrels for the convenience of transport. After the war of 39-45, consumers, more demanding, wanted to know more about the identity of the products and the custom spread to bottle Armagnacs, giving a better guarantee of authenticity to the eau-de-vie de Gascogne.