Poh Spirits Hontambère Pouchegu 1988 44.3%

Late 80s Ténarèze from the old collection from Hontambere (Pouchegu estate) and bottled by Poh Spirits in June 2025.

Colour: Dark amber, gold lights. Irregular heavy tears.

Nose: Full of toffee and caramel sweet notes at first. Plenty of minty aromas too. Quite an expressive nose, maybe a little less precise than other Pouchegu tasted here. Gentle waxy notes in the background.

Palate: Ample texture, carrying intense chocolate notes. Pear eau-de-vie. Very rustic profile, reminding me a bit of some old Domfrontais Calvados, like 1980s Lemorton. A touch of astringency in the aftertaste. It ends on plum juice, the one left in your homemade tinned plum jars (my grandma used to make the best in the world, sorry papa and mama).

Last Notes: Quite yeasty with air, with hints of fresh bread dough and NEIPA beer aromas. A few malted notes indeed. Not as chalky as other Ténarèze (like Seailles), but there’s an undeniable freshness in the background. Back on the palate, you get briny and spiced notes, a strange mix of salted-butter caramel and Tabasco.

Well, if you’re looking up rusticity in the dictionary, here’s a good definition. But rusticity doesn’t mean a lack of wood integration. Very relevant kind of Armagnac. 

My very subjective note: 87+/100