Ambre Noir Brecourt 2011 Eau de Parfum

Lolita is right: with all the chocolatiness in Ambre Noir - this here is white chocolate! Not the brown, cocoa-like, certainly not the bittersweet one. While dark chocolate melts so beautifully softly in the mouth, with cocoa notes that sometimes still hint at their dry-oily-powdery origin, white chocolate has a completely different taste and texture. It tastes and feels more like hardened oil, solid butter, or frozen cream. That’s why DeGes image of the Nappo is so fitting: the very thin melting outer cocoa layer quickly gives way to the white, though hard, but simultaneously creamy-sweet interior of the puller from my youth.

Ambre Noir is therefore a very exciting gourmand. It is - yes, indeed - delicious, sensual, yet refined and, despite all its depth, also a bit weightless, and despite all its culinary strength, it is also very gentle. A very skillful smoky-sweet note in the background adds further stimulating dimensions. Finally, a Brecourt that exhibits a complexity where the contained fragrance notes can retain their individuality and do not drown in a dull uniformity.
The woods hold back their strength for me, as does the patchouli. Instead, the balsamic notes can fully play out their potential and contribute a creamy softness on which one can float. In my perception, the scent is light and bright, yet still very cozy.

One should not be misled by the strange opening: an unusually intense bitter-fresh note at the very beginning disappears quickly and makes way for this gentle and soft delicious scent that the Brecourts have managed to get just right.