Year: 2007
Notes: red pepper, sweet spices, cumin, saffron, rose, orris, oud, Haitian vetiver, Mysore sandalwood
Red Aoud is a spicy-gourmand oud creation, which forsakes the citrus and rose coupling in favour of something more unconventional. The opening is extremely pungent and sweet, with a discordant array of notes all fighting for one's attention. With a prominent plum-like aroma, these rich and cacophonous accords initially throw one's nose into a state of total confusion and, for a while, it's entertaining just as much as it's compelling.
The opening gradually settles, allowing a prevalent iris heart to surface and dominate the proceedings. With the addition of spices, Red Aoud then verges dangerously close to smelling like a spicier version of Christian Dior's Dior Homme Intense. The iris continues to increase with intensity, while a previously evident cocoa note slowly subsides and allows the creamy vanillic richness of the Haitian vetiver to reveal itself further.
As for the oud, it's more obscured than usual but still present. With excellent projection and lasting power, it's the most potent Montale ever. Its potency endures for several hours, before a gentle sandalwood-infused woody drydown gently shimmers on the skin.
Unfortunately, with additional wearings, the novelty rapidly wears off, and it becomes clear that the composition is both muddy and unnecessarily cluttered. In hindsight, one realises just how brash and annoying it often is to wear. The oud constantly clashes; many of the accords literally smother each other; and its construction is too tightly interwoven, chaotic and not particularly well thought out.
Stylistically coming across as a Middle Eastern niche equivalent of Jean-Paul Gaultier's Le Mâle, the concept had great potential but it wasn't executed as well as it could have been.
The opening gradually settles, allowing a prevalent iris heart to surface and dominate the proceedings. With the addition of spices, Red Aoud then verges dangerously close to smelling like a spicier version of Christian Dior's Dior Homme Intense. The iris continues to increase with intensity, while a previously evident cocoa note slowly subsides and allows the creamy vanillic richness of the Haitian vetiver to reveal itself further.
As for the oud, it's more obscured than usual but still present. With excellent projection and lasting power, it's the most potent Montale ever. Its potency endures for several hours, before a gentle sandalwood-infused woody drydown gently shimmers on the skin.
Unfortunately, with additional wearings, the novelty rapidly wears off, and it becomes clear that the composition is both muddy and unnecessarily cluttered. In hindsight, one realises just how brash and annoying it often is to wear. The oud constantly clashes; many of the accords literally smother each other; and its construction is too tightly interwoven, chaotic and not particularly well thought out.
Stylistically coming across as a Middle Eastern niche equivalent of Jean-Paul Gaultier's Le Mâle, the concept had great potential but it wasn't executed as well as it could have been.
