Azemour opens with juicy orange citrus over traces of underlying cumin spice. As the composition moves to its early heart the initial juicy orange morphs to sharp relatively dry, slightly bitter, fresh green grapefruit-infused neroli as the underlying cumin spice grows slightly in its intensity. As the composition makes its way through its middle the cumin dissipates as the composition turns more green through the infusion of a mossy accord rising from the base that couples with orange flower and the green neroli, resulting in a slightly dirty bitter-green orange accord. During the late dry-down the cumin spice completely vacates the composition leaving remnants of the green moss to add additional support to the starring slightly sharp woods and supporting coumarin derived hay base notes. Projection is minimal with the composition just a little more than a skin scent and longevity average at about 7-9 hours on skin.
Azemour les Orangers is a very different composition than I expected. Yes, the orange fruit is definitely there early-on in particular, but the composition is much more about the fresh green neroli aspect of the orange tree, incorporating even aspects of the tree itself late. The presentation is quite a welcome departure from the usual "orange". Something *not* as welcome is the subtle to moderate use of dirty cumin spice through the early heart of the composition. The cumin is never intrusive, thankfully, but it does seem unnecessary and the composition shines brightest when it is unnoticeable. The late dry-down is quite different than the rest of the composition, with the moss and coumarin in the base completing the chypre structure but its focus turns quite woody with almost a sharp vetiver-like bent, and an extremely slight saltiness noticeable only if one pays close attention. Save for the unnecessary cumin the whole thing is quite well put together and exudes some of the spirit of the great Monsieur de Givenchy at times (without the orange, of course). The bottom line is the $145 per 100ml bottle Azemour could have been truly excellent had it not marred its presentation slightly with its relatively minor use of dirty cumin, but even "as is" the end result still merits a "very good" to "excellent" 3.5 to 4 stars out of 5 and a solid recommendation to all.
