Frequently asked

Every parcel needs an adult signature. Someone 21 or over must be at the delivery address with photo identification — the carrier cannot leave a bottle unattended and we cannot ship to a PO box.

The carrier attempts delivery twice. After the second attempt the bottle returns to the cellar and we write to you to arrange a second dispatch — nothing is destroyed and nothing is left on a doorstep.

Spirits shipping is governed state by state. Enter your address at checkout and the destination is confirmed before payment — anywhere we cannot legally reach is declined at that point, not after your card is charged.

Bottles held in the cellar are packed and dispatched within two working days. A vintage marked Special Order is drawn from the reserve and takes approximately two to three weeks — the wait is stated on the product page and repeated on the cart line.

Yes. Every shipment travels fully insured and requires the adult signature above. Shipping protection can be added in the cart for five dollars, which covers loss and breakage in transit and replaces the bottle where one still exists.

Orders over two hundred and fifty dollars ship without a delivery charge. Below that, the rate is calculated at checkout from the destination and the weight of the glass.

France's oldest brandy, distilled in Gascony since 1310 — three centuries before Cognac. It is column-distilled once, at low strength, and aged in local black oak, which is why a vintage keeps the character of its year. The long version is on Why Armagnac.

Everything in the bottle was distilled from one harvest, in one year, and nothing has been blended in to smooth it. The year on the label is the year in the glass.

No — a spirit stops ageing the moment it leaves the cask. A 1928 bottled last year and a 1928 bottled in 1990 are both 1928 and both will taste the same in a decade. Store it upright, out of sunlight, and it will wait for you.

Because it is not in the shipping cellar. It is still purchasable — the bottle is drawn from the reserve and prepared for dispatch, which takes approximately two to three weeks.

Some vintages never reach the public shelf. Write to the cellar with the year — if a bottle exists we will say so.