Bloodline American Perfumer 2019

Do you see the sparks flying in the sky, rising like cool-green drops of juniper rain from distant campfires, their dark mists drifting through the forests and crackling into the underbrush? Do you hear the red cedar beating like fruity-woody wine in my veins, the hissing of the cool pine needles in the annual rings of resinous shavings? There in the oak barrels dwell fleeting shadows of the spirits of my ancestors, made from black vanilla. Do you smell the mulch in my clothes, sewn from the leaves of tobacco fields, keeping me warm here in the woods, in the dust of cocoa over earthy paths that lie many hours ahead of me? I come from long lines of cedar wood and ancient pines.
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Hans Hendley's "Bloodline" is based on an oil that Hendley's father distilled from a red cedar that stood on the Texas family property. Its aroma is reminiscent of fruity red wine from wooden barrels, which is dominated by a chord of cool pine needles, soft tobacco leaves, and robust Swiss pine resins from pitch. However, the beginning is marked by smoky juniper notes of the red cedar, before soon the leading motif, flanked by oak notes reminiscent of an old whiskey barrel with residual aromas of dark vanilla, emerges. Some time later, notes of bitter cocoa and earth from dark patchouli become perceptible, while the balsamic labdanum and oak moss add even more depth and darkness beneath the increasingly dominant Swiss pine.
A fascinating, moderately projecting, and long-lasting fragrance that initially exudes the spirit of "Fum" or "Norne," but then works in a more complex manner, carrying echoes of "Pine Barrens" or "Desert Resin," and thus ranks among the great natural fragrances for me.