20 JULY 1962, Page 30

Wine of the Week

At the end of a recent luncheon in a private room at Pimm's in the City, the managing dire.; for of that restaurant gave his guests not cognac, but an Armagnac--and one that stroo: me as being very true to its admirable hrec,d.r slightly darker in colour and fuller in flav°`-ti than cognac, but beautifully smooth a rounded. It was a Cles des Dues, Grand .no which I was not surprised to learn was ill-as than ten years old, but was surprised to find %, only the same price as standard three-star ,CO„.15 nacs. It comes from the Bayonne firm that ills' y the Basque 'Izarra' liqueurs, and is shipPecl Molton and Co., of South Molton Street, w,he can supply retailers. I have since tried twenty-year-old and thirty-year-old vary' le of the same mark, at 57s. and 65s. 6d. a bn,..e respectively—both very good, but it ts the youngest one, at 48s. 6d., that I still hold t° remarkable value for a fine liqueur.