Drakkar Intense Guy Laroche 2022

First of all, I'm a big fan of Drakkar Noir. That great fougere from the early 80s. It was a style-defining fragrance. So when I bought Drakkar Intense at the local M*leer for €20 per 100 ml, I was excited. I only know the Noir from the series. Not the others.

The color of the liquid in the oval transparent bottle is clear and brownish. The cap looks cheap and the sprayer does what it should.

Citrus and herbs immediately after spraying. Lavender and then moss. The coriander at the beginning is peppery. The lavender comes into its own in the drydown. It is warm and ambery the whole time. In the base, a beautifully realized moss with clean musk.
I also detect vanilla here. Which is a big minus point. It makes the Intense simply interchangeable with many others. This sweetness ruins a higher rating for me here.
I often find vanilla overloaded and often used in an inflationary way in modern fragrances.

Nonetheless, a modern, warmly ambered fougere with a contemporary appearance. Solid. Not a particularly intense fragrance. Rather standard.

Can be done. Definitely worth a longer try as an everyday fragrance.

You can make the comparison with Noir, but you shouldn't. There are 40 years in between. I think the Intense is perfectly fine as an office fragrance for the colder half of the year.

Simply solid.

And to answer the initial question, no. Not a worthy successor. A solid, independent fragrance that is based on a classic but does not try to replace or copy it.

Thank you for reading.