Plum in Cognac Vintage 24 Scents of Wood 2024

Oak barrel aged cognac with a spiced plummy sweetness and a leathery osmanthus. Vetiver here adds a very dry feel but becomes softer with the powdery notes of broom and immortelle almost like an earthy cushion. The dry down allows what are otherwise heavy notes to sort of settle, smooth out, and become a bit sweeter and well blended. A very adult and aptly named vintage boozy fragrance with lots of depth to it.

This is a joint review of Plum in Cognac and Plum in Cognac Vintage 24.

Plum in Cognac opens with a strong boozy scent that quickly diminishes and blends with a fruity accord which is presumably the plum and perhaps a touch of the osmanthus. It dries down into a somewhat generic fruity accord with little to no rum and a distinct synthetic accord which I did not find pleasant. Performance was average all around.

Plum in Cognac Vintage 24 opens less boozy and more fruity compared to Plum in Cognac. As it dries down, you get more of the creamy goodness with a touch of the vanilla and cinnamon and a slightly sharp, woody hint. Comparing the two, Vintage is the more balanced and overall better fragrance. Performance of Vintage is also significantly better than Plum in Cognac. I got a good 12 hours of longevity with quite strong projection for the first couple of hours.

Trying to think of a place for Vintage 24 in my collection, I'm dissuaded. If I were to categorize it, Vintage 24 is the sort of sweet, creamy scent that brings to mind Tony Iommi Monkey Special, Pasha Noir Absolu and even very slightly Boss Bottled Absolu. Monkey Special is superior to Vintage 24 IMO and since I already have it, there's really no room for Vintage 24.

There's less sweetness with this than Plum in Cognac it's a little drier, I feel like there is leather in the seams if that makes sense....the plum is still there but it doesn't sing as loud, and the cognac is colder which for me let's it be more versatile (when you consider the whole composition).

I think this one is slightly more mature, but they clearly are both from the same DNA as you would guess. If I had to choose, I would choose this one to wear over the other.

If it's you wearing it, I imagine you're just past 30, okay with wearing boots, whatever past you have, this might be your armor because its sweet but not soft, and bold but not loud. I would say you look for beauty in quiet things, in old wood, or paper books, or hardly remembered songs.