Coriolan Guerlain 1998 Eau de Toilette

I remember this one from a few years ago as a sort of mild fougère with a juniper note. I prefer a hard, rougher fougère. The common ground of lavender and coumarin is small yet significant, but their difference is what makes a fougère hold together. The fougère accord works well with broad brush strokes.

I stupidly gave away my bottle of Coriolan a few years ago, and with the retrospect of sense memory have dwelled on it ever since. I bought it again yesterday and had such a great surprise. It’s not a weak fougère, it’s a chypre. And a nicely blended, well proportioned one at that. What on earth had I been thinking? Especially in an age of oakmoss nostalgia, what a beautiful thing to fall in my lap. What I disliked when I viewed it as a fougère (timid, finicky) is exactly what makes it so pleasant as a chypre. It is harmonious from start to finish; there are no elbows jutting out. There is the bitterness of the bergamot and moss, but it is balanced by a sweet quality from the juniper. There is a cool herbal quality, but it doesn’t read as culinary. I don’t find it particularly forceful and the sillage is minimal to moderate. I think the blended quality could be read as noncommital, but I find its ease very comfortable.

Very green, very peppery scent. Almost herbal opening,slightly bitter at first, but very well blended in the dry-down. Could be considered a mature gentleman's scent. However a very green, fresh and sharp fragrance which could be considered a classic. To me definitely an "outdoors" kind of scent, but on the right person this would certainly give a very positive, elegant and refined type of masculine vibe. Which would be very welcome. Would recommend both for formal and informal wear.

In my opinion, this is not a typical masculine scent. As soon as you apply the scent to your hand, you hear some kind of floral aroma. Perhaps this is how neroli plays. Then, of course, the aroma begins to play with new colors. Here everything begins to be felt: bergamot, walnut, coriander, and then moss, patchouli, veliver and leather join in. The aroma is very unusual, and it is very suitable for standing out.

A classic formal herbal-mossy fougère with a leather base accord, aldehydes and a floral-spicy “barbershop” heart (citrus, coriander, lavender, tonka) on woods, mostly vetiver to my nose. Honestly a little dull at first to me, as it reminded me a lot of other cheaper (quality and price wise) scents of that era based on the same herbal-floral-leather structure. Coriolan is undoubtedly pleasant, mellow and refined, and you can tell it’s a Guerlain by the particular high quality of the composition, the solid feel of elegance, the range of colorful nuances from soapy, to leathery, to bitter-greenish and to smoky: yet... well, to me it’s not exactly a must unless you’re really a Guerlain collector or a fougère enthusiast, this meaning it is rather conventional and as I said, not that far from most of other similar fougères from the ‘80s or the ‘90s. Let’s put it this way: good and classy, and surely an utter pleasure to wear, but in my opinion probably the most negligible among Guerlain’s “vintage” masculine offerings (obviously they’ve done worse later on...).

6,5-7/10

EDIT: I revisited this having the chance to wear it more properly for one day. It's much better than my review above, the keys are its understatement and above all, the evolution, which is fantastic and leading to an incredibly elegant, rich and nuanced drydown. Still nothing "groundbreaking" but easy to underrate.

In both a literal and metaphorical sense, this title applies to Coriolan. A few days ago, I found a well-preserved bottle of this fragrance in my younger son's closet, which I had gifted him a few years ago and subsequently forgotten. Recently, however, my sons asked me for two men's fragrances, which I happily handed over to them - pleased with this educational success. In return, my younger son handed me the old bottle of Coriolan, as he had never used the fragrance. Which Guerlain enthusiast would be surprised by that?

And yet, I was overjoyed by this unexpected reunion, this mutually satisfying exchange. For years, the small, extraordinarily uniquely shaped bottle had been waiting in the shadow of a closet in my son's room, until it was to be brought back to light. Since it had always been kept in the darkest corner, I believe the fragrance has held up well. A comparison was possible not only from memory but also due to a similarly well-preserved miniature that I also own and used as a reference. In a few days, I will likely receive a sample of the hardly reformulated reissue L’Ame d’un Héros, so a final comparison should be possible.

The metaphorical aspect of the title also holds true: Coriolan has always stood in the shadow of its significantly more successful sibling fragrances Habit Rouge, Vetiver, Héritage, and recently L’Instant de Guerlain and Homme. The stories of these fragrances have been wonderfully described by my predecessors, so no further explanations are necessary.

Approaching the fragrance, the scent itself once again, describing Coriolan has indeed intrigued me, as the fragrance is one of the most complex representatives on the market, revealing itself only slowly or not at all, and thus challenges the wearer to keep trying anew with it. One might understand this as a compliment, but it is not necessary, as for me, a good fragrance also includes love at first, or at least second glance, something like an initial fascination. Nevertheless, it can also be exciting to wrest a fragrance from the shadows, to discover it anew individually, thus not reaching an end with the scent. While this may ultimately apply to many fragrances, it applies to very few to such a high degree as it does to Coriolan.

As already described by other commentators, the top note of Coriolan is decidedly challenging, initially even a disappointment. When I received the fragrance many years ago, I could hardly relate to it precisely because of this top note. As a fan of hesperidic fragrances or top notes, I am still dissatisfied with the opening, in which so little of the many citrus components mentioned in the fragrance pyramid can be perceived: Where is the lemon, the neroli, petitgrain, bergamot? They are probably perceptible, but dosed so subtly as in no other fragrance with these components. Instead, the herbal components immediately come to the forefront, presumably primarily the sage, which seems to be the main theme of this fragrance along with the juniper berry; perhaps ginger also plays an important role, but it cannot quite assert itself against the herbal accents.

At this point, Coriolan somewhat reminds me of Lem by Galimard, certainly not a good comparison, as this fragrance is likely little known, and the clear lemony top note in Lem provides a much more harmonious start. This conclusion should actually speak for Coriolan: an original, unique fragrance? On one hand, yes: Coriolan had no predecessors and hardly any successors. On the other hand, this realization naturally speaks against the fragrance, as Coriolan remains anxious, shy, and pale; it has something almost touching about it, lacking the confident presence of the other aforementioned Guerlain fragrances, something that sticks and settles in the scent memory.

The sour-bitter tint of the fragrance has already been mentioned multiple times, which is noticeable from the top note through the heart note, actually even into the base note. For this, it seems to me that the idiosyncratic combination of sage and juniper on one hand and the subtly citrus tones on the other is responsible.

In the base, a kinship to the aforementioned Lem emerges again, as from my perspective, it is primarily the moss that is perceptible, certainly also vetiver (but not only in the base note, rather much earlier: also a cause of bitter and sour tones at the same time), less the leather, it seems to me. This may have to do with the fact that when I think of a leather base note, I quickly think of hefty fragrances from the 80s or the classic Knize Ten and wonder where the leather note in Coriolan might be. It is certainly present, albeit only subtly.

Subtle: That is probably the shortest formula for describing Coriolan, the image of the shadow another. The fragrance is fleeting, has no striking presence, is merely the shadow image on the wall, just like in Plato's Allegory of the Cave, the semblance of the true world. That the shadow also has its charm, because it cannot be grasped, it continually eludes, and is sometimes more interesting than all the things that confidently stand in the light, is a different matter altogether, but it can serve as an explanation for why this fragrance still fascinates me after so many years.

Postscript: The sample of L'Ame d'un Héros has arrived. Many thanks to Nérée! I can only echo the judgment of other knowledgeable commentators. The difference between the fragrances is at most marginal - and both are beautiful.