De Charville Frères XXO 45%

DE CHARVILLE FRERES XXO 45%

New kid on the block (ter)

The beginning of the range (VSOP, XO) is interesting but, in my humble opinion, there is always something missing. And these references are reduced to 40%. This XXO has a higher ABV (45%) and is way older (30-40yo). So let’s taste this De Charville Frères XXO!

Colour: Old gold, gold lights. Regular medium tears.

Nose: Quite licoricy at first. Some red berry juice. Few chocolate notes. Young pineapple. Passion fruits juice. This nose is exotic for sure. Bitter chocolate, cocoa powder. Raisins scents are obvious in this XXO. Fig jam. Nice fruity scents. Tinned plums. Grenadine and marasquin cherry. Very promising 

Palate: Rich texture. Grenadine/cherry syrup bomb. Slight mushroom aromas. Licorice syrup. The fruitiness has turned into something more rancioted. Still some chocolate, especially cocoa powder. Young melon. Light tobacco aromas. Quite spicy too. It ends on young melon and candied citruses. The mouth length is a bit short, even with 45% 

Last Notes: Cold tobacco and bitter chocolate with more air. Few roasted hazelnuts too. Light caramel scents. Quite heady, mainly on violet perfume. Back on the palate, it’s licoricy again. A bit of freshness in the background. It ends on a gentle pepperiness. 

More convincing than the VSOP and the XO, this De Charville XXO is undoubtedly a good one. Maybe a little lack of precision and mouth length to reach the 88 points mark. 

My very subjective note: 87+/100

My review of their VSOP

My review of their XO

More info on De Charville website

I do not own the rights for the bottle picture

Thanks again Thomas for these 3 interesting cognacs!