Montale is a Paris-based perfumer with two lines: an oudh line based on the precious oudh (or agar) wood frequently used in Middle Eastern fragrances, and a regular perfume line. That is the extent of what I have been able to learn about Montale — if you know more, please comment! Montale’s description of Patchouli Leaves is as follows:
Beautiful Patchouli leaves macerated for two years in the trunk of the oak tree combine with vanilla, amber and white musk on a base of Cystus ladaniferus from Tibet.
Cistus ladaniferus is the variety of rockrose commonly used to make labdanum.
As anyone who has been reading this blog regularly already knows, I am not a big fan of patchouli. That said, if I had to wear patchouli, this would be the perfume I would choose. That is not because it is light on the patchouli, because truly, it isn’t. It is just such a lovely, well balanced rendition. It has a pronounced earthy undertone — really, it smells a lot like warm, wet dirt, especially in the early stages — and I am catching lots of tree bark as well…
