Accord Oud Byredo 2010

Right from the start, the scent is difficult to describe and can only be formulated in images.
It begins wonderfully leathery, but not just that. With a dried-fruit depth, Accord Oud smells old, not necessarily antiquated as the scent is modern. More like old furniture, very old dark brown wooden furniture, the kind you discover through the haze of dust stirred up in your grandparents' attic. They are simple yet possess an undefined elegance.
The scent evokes for me a sense of the past and loneliness. Nevertheless, it conveys a muted elegance, not so much a dull thud but rather pulsating and awakening.
It is a craftfully great composition. You can feel how raspberry, rum, and leather notes enter into a symbiosis here, but you can't really smell it; this scent is too intertwined.
When I am in my parents' attic during the height of summer, I feel the stuffy dry air in my throat, the unbearable heat, and the longing for a refreshing fruit ice that only dries my throat out more. That's somewhat how Accord Oud is. Dry, dusty with a hint of withered fruitiness. Around me, old wood and old armchairs.
The transition to the top note is very subtly progressing.
The sage gives itself completely to its light note and smoothly replaces the fruity dry notes of the top note with equally dry but wood-heavy notes. A bitter, harsh note sets in and firmly establishes the end of the top note.

Accord Oud somehow comes across as a constrained scent. It doesn't fully open up and hides itself more and more as the scent develops. It also becomes weaker.
Cinnamon is supposed to be in there as well. I actually smell nothing of spicy cinnamon and saffron. I probably missed that.
After a promising start, I was also waiting for something to be expected. Nothing.
The scent becomes downright boring. The dry down is merely a subtle patchouli.
The oud, as the name promises, is found in a new interpretation. Formerly the prima ballerina of the scent, it is here very subtle and shy. You can smell the resinous, sultry wood character with an earthy undertone.
Unfortunately, I don't know Oud Immortel, but both are said to be "exaggerations" of original ideas. But read for yourself.

Ben Gorham on Accord Oud:
“I got to know the smell of oud in India and the Middle East. Its distinctive and intense character impressed me greatly. I felt the need to focus entirely on the uniqueness of this raw material and create a scent that draws exclusively from the character of oud. During the development, I found that different facets of this complex wood type were even more pronounced when combined with other essences. In the end, I liked two very different interpretations the best, and I decided to present them as a pair. In both cases, they are exaggerations of the original idea.”

Although I find the idea to be great in my opinion and nose, the execution leaves much to be desired. It's as if the perfumer lost interest after the heart note. The realization of the idea is too simple and too unremarkable for me. More than up to the top note doesn't reach me; after that, Accord Oud loses itself in woody pseudo-minimalism. Accord Oud feels unfinished, going from initial greatness to being unremarkable.
The opening was so promising, the ending so unremarkable.