Indian oud
05/22/2025
ClaireV
731 Reviews
ClaireV
1
Classic Hindi profile - with all that entails
In many ways, this personifies the classic Hindi profile - pissy/animalic, sharp, spicy, oozing bleu cheese, over a basso fondo of leather and matted straw. But perhaps because this is a blend of multiple aged oils from between 1970 and 1993 rather than one single distillation, all sorts of other interesting nuances get layered in. In particular, a malted grain aspect, sort of mealy and savory, which I smell in the first half an hour, then the scent of wet hay, and finally, in the leather drydown, a sort of sweet, winey accent.
Make no mistake about it, though, in the first four hours or so of this experience, it smells absolutely feral, like being in a cage with tigers, the smell of fur, urine, sweat, and dung packed so tightly into the small space that it feels like someone just grabbed your throat. But that drydown, wow. As always, it's like the entire orchestra laying down their instruments one by one until all you can hear is the mournful, low down sound of the double bass, more of a vibration in your lower half than anything else. Rich, rich leather, baked hay, oak, the whole spectrum of brown and withered things that appear in nature. As always with Hindi ouds, I am struck by how miles deep the experience turns out to be. The first few hours are austere, pissy, intimidating (to me anyway) but you are always rewarded - if it's a good specimen, like this one is - by a deeply umami, complex drydown that takes up residence in your skin for the entire day. It's been eight hours and I am still rolling around in it.
By the way, this one is not smoky. Some Hindi ouds are smoky, I know, but this one is not. If anything, there's a bit of syrupiness. Not sweetness, not wetness, just an absence of bone-dryness.
Make no mistake about it, though, in the first four hours or so of this experience, it smells absolutely feral, like being in a cage with tigers, the smell of fur, urine, sweat, and dung packed so tightly into the small space that it feels like someone just grabbed your throat. But that drydown, wow. As always, it's like the entire orchestra laying down their instruments one by one until all you can hear is the mournful, low down sound of the double bass, more of a vibration in your lower half than anything else. Rich, rich leather, baked hay, oak, the whole spectrum of brown and withered things that appear in nature. As always with Hindi ouds, I am struck by how miles deep the experience turns out to be. The first few hours are austere, pissy, intimidating (to me anyway) but you are always rewarded - if it's a good specimen, like this one is - by a deeply umami, complex drydown that takes up residence in your skin for the entire day. It's been eight hours and I am still rolling around in it.
By the way, this one is not smoky. Some Hindi ouds are smoky, I know, but this one is not. If anything, there's a bit of syrupiness. Not sweetness, not wetness, just an absence of bone-dryness.
