Russisch Juchten Harry Lehmann

I can't stand "Cuir de Russie." At least in its current formulation, it does not deserve this grand historical name in my opinion, but rather is a bland, flat, stale, one-dimensional imitation of a historical genre that had its robust and widespread popularity among the grandparent generation with the fantastic "Kölnisch Juchten" from Farina (I own a vintage version from the 1950s) and others. Currently, for example, "Jeke" by Slumberhouse and "Lonestar Memories" by Andy Tauer are extremely contemporary masculine representatives of this genre. What does Mr. Lehmann contribute?

"Russisch Juchten" by Harry Lehmann opens with a strange sour note that smells to my nose like how sage candies taste... Alongside this is the golden-dark, elegant floral accord that will dominate the heart and further development; I smell a rather masculine dark violet, also a delicate rose note, perhaps jasmine, and a few more. Nestled within this is the very classic and strong leather note; yes, this floral powerhouse contains and IS the leather note! Exactly Apicius, quite similar to XPEC and in its style, or also close to Knize Ten.

In this respect, the fragrance clearly engages in massive label deception, as there is neither Russian nor Juchten in it, and the birch tar accord is completely absent - in favor of a wonderfully orchestrated, complex, deep, and highly elegant floral "leather" note that masterfully achieves this purpose with fantastically deep and complex notes. Unlike Profumo, I do not perceive this fragrance at all as traditional in the sense of the aforementioned classics, but rather in my perception as an extraordinarily elegant, fragrant, purely floral, and thus excellently wearable interpretation of this classic theme (even though I can well imagine that the noticeably elaborate formulation that achieves this feat has already been around for several decades). I do not find the construction of this fragrance to be "rough and unrefined," but rather, on the contrary, as a highly masterfully rounded and complexly orchestrated, excellently finely layered composition.

Alongside "Sandalwood," "Russisch Juchten" is clearly my favorite from Harry Lehmann. A fantastic fragrance!