The heart of the Armagnac appellation — a medieval town on the Baïse river that takes its name with good humour and produces world-class brandy from 700-year-old vineyards
Condom is a small market town in the Gers — 40km north of Auch on the Baïse river, at the geographical and historical centre of the Armagnac appellation. The town name causes predictable amusement to English-speaking visitors (it derives from the Latin Condomus — nothing pharmaceutical about it), and the local tourist office has leaned into this with mild merchandising. Armagnac is the serious business: the town is ringed by small estates producing single-vintage and blended Armagnacs from Folle Blanche, Colombard, Ugni Blanc, and Baco Blanc grapes in the sandy boulbène soils of Ténarèze. The…
Condom was a prosperous medieval wool and wine trading town on the Baïse river, which was navigable as far south as Condom until the 19th century and carried wine barrels north to Bordeaux for export. The Bishops of Condom were among the most powerful in Gascony; one of them, Jacques Bénigne Bossuet (bishop 1669–1671), is still considered the greatest prose stylist in French classical literature. The Armagnac brandy trade — originally a medicinal product prescribed by apothecaries — was documented as early as 1411 in a document from the Éauze region, making it the oldest distilled spirit in F…