Rating: 15/23 E: Side by side with Delamain Pale & Dry, I can see that this is a bit darker. It isn't a terribly dark, but the difference between the two is noticeable. N: It's a nice balance of rich, dry, oily, sweetly fruity (orange, mild cherry, and apple), and spicy (ginger and cinnamon). The complexity is solid, the profile is nice, and the balance is good. It doesn't smell super old or mature and robust, but I like it. P: Fruit - orange, cherry, strawberry. Apple and some apple peel gradually come in. The spice hits - cinnamon and ginger. With it comes the barrel with some dry wood flavor that doesn't taste overly fresh - or as assertive as one might guess based on the name "Double Cask". There's a tad of oiliness too. It's enjoyable, but that's about where the palate ends. A De Fussigny XO is much richer and fuller though with just as much complexity. Side by side, this is thinner with more of an alcohol presence and meeker flavors. F: I get the more bitter end of the fruit here - though there's still some sweetness. The wood hangs out a bit too, but not a ton. The spices prickle a bit an there might be a touch of black pepper now, The finish is perhaps a tad on the short side of medium. - Conclusion - This is a very good brandy and a really solid example of multiple aspects of what Cognac can be. It isn't excellent though. I would put it in the 14 to 17 range. I'm leaning toward 16. Delamain Pale & Dry gets a 17 and it's clearly better than this. The more I compare them, the more obviously large the gap is. This is in the 15 to 16 range, but I'm leaning toward a 15 considering that there's a pretty substantial gap between this and the Delamain and the Delamain barely made a 17. As sort of a last point of comparison, I cracked open a bottle of Rémy Martin 1738 and that strikes me as a bit better than this (though not a tremendous improvement). As an actual last point of comparison, I also opened a bottle of ABK6 VSOP. While more like the Delamain (though sweeter and less complex - so maybe a hybrid with this, actually), I felt like I was able to compare these two reasonably well. I feel like if I have to give the win to one of them, it goes to the Pierre Ferrand, but it isn't a win by a large margin. At the end of the day, there are some nice flavors in here, but it's just a bit immature and syrupy for my taste. Thanks to @ctbeck11 for sharing a sample!