Armagnac today is associated with the eau-de-vie "water of life" or brandy, the first alcohol to be distilled in France dating back to the 14th century. Lectoure is the historic capital of Armagnac, a territory between the Garonne river and the Pyrénées mountains which creates a natural border for the cultural and linguistic area called Gascony. The region, populated by the Aquitani people, was conquered by the Roman Empire, then by the Visigoths, by the Vascons from the Pyrénées (who gave it their name), and finally by the Franks led by King Clovis. The term "Armagnac" comes from the German "Armin", the name of a Frankish chief from the 6th century, which means "mighty warrior" in Old Germanic. Clovis rewarded Armin with this region for his bravery at the battle of Vouillé (near Poitiers), in 507 against the Visigoths. This Gascon stronghold became later known as the County of Armagnac. 

Armin, in all likelihood inherited from Hermann, was first Latinized as Arminius before being "Gasconized", becoming successively Arminiacus (the land of Armin), then Arminhac, Armaignac, before taking the final form of Armagnac. First patronymic and then country name, Armagnac became the name of the Gascon brandy from its commercial boom, particularly with Holland in the 17th century. Finally, in 1790, Armagnac was briefly the name of the “département” (administrative division) until a deputy preferred to call it Gers after the river that runs through it. 

Historically, Gers has always been one of the main wine producers in France. Gers has been known since the 3rd century AD for producing quality wines. Not far from Lectoure is the famous Gallo-Roman villa of Séviac displaying some splendid mosaics representing vines and grapes evoking the harvest. On the outskirts of Lectoure, archaeological excavations have led to the discovery of barrels dating back to this same period, thus attesting to the production of wine to this time period.

Gers was the largest wine producing region in France until 1870 when its vineyards experienced the scourge of phylloxera like most French regions. Of the 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of vines, only 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) would be replanted and today less than 2,500 hectares (6,000 acres) are allocated to the production of Armagnac (out of 5,000 identified hectares – 12,000 acres).

The Gers is still at the forefront of innovation today. This is where we find the largest organic areas of production (91,800 ha), ahead of Aveyron (70,000 ha), and Aude (52,500 ha).