In the small Gascon village of  Saint-Puy, perched on a hill, there is a château that dates back more than ten centuries.

 

By the time of  the neolithic era, several thousand years ago, man had already chosen to settle on this promontory covered in oaks.  The polished stone axes and arrow tips which have been discovered here, are evidence of their activity here and their first tradings.

 

More than ten centuries later, the Romans developed the cultivation of vines which, with the growth of communications, brought a new prosperity to the region that was to become GASCONY.

 

Fifty years before Jesus Christ, Saint-Puy was already a fortified settlement, the encampment of the Garites tribe, which was later given the name of the County of Gaure of which Saint-Puy was then the capital.  The name Saint-Puy comes from the latin «  summum podium », the highest place.

 

A little later the Saracens passed through and brought with them their ‘stills’.

 

In 929, Frédelon was the Count of Gaure and Lord of Saint-Puy.  His château became a strong fortress built of stone and his authority extended to the surrounding areas.

 

In 1272, Géraud de Casaubon, Count of Gaure went into conflict with his neighbour at Lectoure, the Count of Armagnac.  Saint-Puy, in a rich county with a population of more than 6000, came to know destruction and pillage.

 

Very quickly the King of France, Philippe le Bel, feudal overlord of Géraud de Casaubon, restored order and rebuilt the fortress and the town.  He also created the bastide town of Fleurance that now came under the control of the Count of Gaure.

 

The vines continued to develop more and more over the centuries.  By the 14^th Century the wine of ‘high country’ (Haut-pays) Gascony was already well known throughout Europe, thanks to the commercial efforts of the Dutch merchants.

 

The scene was set with everything in place to allow full expression for the inventive spirit of the Gascons.  The English however, driven out of Gascony in the 15^th Century, did not take kindly to the Dutch traders on their former estates and as a result, the story of Armagnac was born.

 

Consequently the Dutch boats were not allowed to go any further than Bordeaux, still under English rule, until the Spring following the previous years’ harvest, when they were permitted to go back up the Garonne river to load the Haut-pays wines.   It was therefore already too late for a good number of the wines at this time as, even when well stored, they could not wait for the arrival of the Dutch merchants without being ruined.   The Dutch had the idea to distil a part of these wines in order to mix the extracted alcohol with the remaining wines.  The resulting blend guaranteed the perfect conservation of the wines.

 

Did a wine grower absent-mindedly forget a little of this ‘eau-de-vie’ in the bottom of the oak barrel ?  No one knows for sure, but be that as it may, from then onwards, they started to distil wine to produce a palatable alcohol.  In the 15^th Century, this was an unconventional and original practice as, up until then, alcohol was reserved for doctors, perfumers and alchemists.

 

While the centuries passed, the fame of Armagnac and the Gascons grew little by little, whereas the medieval villages like Saint-Puy, nestled high on the hilltops away from roads and rivers started to lose their influence, tumbling into dormancy. 

 

Today, the creative genius of the Gascons is alive and well, and continues to be passed on from generation to generation.  It is therefore not surprising that the local wine growers, among them the great grandfather of René Lassus, naturally thought to send their wines outside of the region : simply following a centuries old tradition.

 

The wine producers that, at the end of the last century, sold their wines to the Champagne region were not mistaken. The quality of the wines grown on the good soil of the Gascon hillsides lent itself perfectly to the fabrication of these pedigree wines.  It is then that René Lassus, on deepening the trading approach of his grandfather, had the idea to use the champagne method for his wines, still continuing to distil a part.

 

The Château of Saint-Puy is in the Ténarèze, one of the better soil areas for Armagnac production in the region, and the distillation  still plays an important role in the lives of the wine growers.

 

The juxtaposition of the inventive Gascon spirit and their excellent ‘eau-de-vie’, should, and does as one would  imagine, lead to an abundance of original family recipes.

 

The idea for the Cocktail POUSSE-RAPIERE was no different, and René Lassus improved the family formula combining the Armagnac liqueur with BRUT sparkling wine that he produced in the traditional champagne method, creating the Cocktail POUSSE-RAPIERE that we all know.

 

The undeniable success of this Cocktail is due to the fact that its two components are combined together in order to produce a perfectly balanced blend.

 

The wine and the liqueur are made for each other, grown on the same land, from the same vineyards and their marriage is the happiest, most harmonious and the most natural possible.