Hennessy XO Cognac

Rating: 20/23 I got this for a special occasion, but by the time that special occasion materialized, I kind of didn't care. Today felt like the day that one should have been, so I finally opened this. N: Super rich, fruity, and sweet. I get cherries, prunes, a hint of tangerine, something vaguely in the candied/caramelized range, and some mature but bold woodiness with a little spice and must. It's very nice. P: Rich and sweet. The woody maturity provides a great backing that keeps the fruit from getting out of hand and emphasizes how balanced and mature everything is. Some sweet fruit comes bursting through with a sweet cherry richness that is oddly full and complex with this floral and light vanilla character to it that leads me into a dash of prune. There's a little bit of a tangerine zip with a faint minerality hanging around at times, increasing the complexity. The complexity is very nice, though it tastes a tad muddled at times and the low ABV detracts from its fullness. There's more cherry flavor here than in A De Fussigny XO. This is also perhaps a bit less harsh with more citrus and less strong woodiness. Their complexities and fullnesses are similar, though this has arguably the better balance and if I had to give the nod one way or the other on complexity and fullness, I would probably give the win to the Hennessy. I wouldn't say that either immediately strikes me as better than the other though. This one does strike me as tasting more like Hennessy with all of its sweet, floral fruitiness. Stylistically, if this is like Aberlour 12, A De Fussigny is more like Scallywag. I did also try this side-by-side with Delord 25, but they were too different to reasonably compare in great detail. The Delord's woodiness is bolder, but this has a comparable fullness because of its fruit and is also more balanced. F: That moderated, mature, musty wood lingers a bit for quite some time, along with a little bit of floral fruitiness. It's not an amazing finish, but it's solid. - Conclusion - This is a very fine brandy. The flavors are all very well executed with suitable complexity and nothing is cloying. The fruit just walks the line at points, bordering on being too sweet, but never quite making it there. There is simply no way that this is less than an 17 (and it's probably higher than that). It probably isn't as high as a 22 though either. I'm looking in the 18 through 21 range. I was thinking that a 19 was the most likely outcome, but I can definitely see a 20 or 21 as a possibility now. I think I'm going to land on a 20 right now. My overall conclusion is that this is very good and for $150 I don't feel at all upset at what I got for my money, but I can sometimes get A De Fussigny XO for $90 on sale and that just seems like a clearly better value. This may be the best brandy I've yet tried though. Well, it's one of them.

Extra smooth

Wonderful bouquet of candies fruit, prunes, vanilla. Smooth and salty on the palate, with caramel, leather, dark cherries, candied citrus peel. Smooth and warm aftertaste with caramel and dark chocolate.