Vetivera Le Couvent 2022

'The Seine had nestled in mist'*

Botanical genetics, hybrids, DNA. When did the abbreviation for deoxyribonucleic acid appear in the context of perfume reviews? As often as I come across this abbreviation, it seems to have had a steep career. Whenever there is a need to refer to style, signatures, and codes, the DNA is eagerly invoked. The original protocol of modern fragrance DNA may have been the 'Guerlinade.' A group of ingredients that describes a kind of accord/skeleton of several Guerlain fragrances, which found its earliest incarnation in Aimé Guerlain's Jicky (1889), and which was already dedicated its own fragrance in 1921 with Jacques Guerlain's Guerlinade. At the latest with Héritage (1998), the term and history were increasingly and purposefully referenced again.

When the French brand Le Couvent announced a new vetiver-centric perfume this summer, introduced by the recently appointed chief strategist and master perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, my curiosity was piqued. Vetiver, an ingredient that Ellena has rarely placed directly in the spotlight but always in his own unique way. Even though Terre (2006) is often discussed as a vetiver scent, and Bel Ami Vétiver (2013), as the name already suggests, consists of Bel Ami genetics plus vetiver, Vétiver Tonka (2004) celebrates Ellena's well-known reductionism, or newer fragrances like Chap. 2 - Vétiver & Iris (2021) in collaboration with his daughter - there are not many. Vetivera advertises a similar duality: here Haitian vetiver and Madagascan pepper. The image for the release: a photomontage of a green, lush, hilly landscape that could come from the hinterland of Asturias, and surging seawater, splash, somehow also Atlantic. In the press text, the perfumer states that vetiver should not be seen as a predominantly masculine ingredient, hence the name Vetivera and also from seawater, la mer (feminine) and l’océan (masculine) ... all with a typically compact ingredient list. In addition to vetiver and pepper, there are bergamot and cedar. That's it.

But with Vetivera, more is at play; I almost want to call the scent complex - not due to a particularly varied progression with pronounced dynamics or a pandemonium of notes, but Vetivera, as a whole, resembles a hybrid of two of Ellena's creations: the aforementioned Vétiver Tonka and Épice Marine (2013). To stay within botanical genetics: Vetivera is a crossbreed, an intersection and intertwining of the foundational structures of two fragrances. Cleanly divided, in proportions identical to Vetivera's visual subject. A fragrance that implements the discipline of 'layering' already suggested by the Hermès essences? This crossbreed works surprisingly well in Vetivera. The vetiver is enriched by a sprout of the algae-spiced accord of the Épice Marine genetics, becoming more saturated, lush, and moist, and less nutty than in Vétiver Tonka. A distinct sweetness remains; the vetiver note is creamy, and there is a closeness to the tonka's vetiver and also Bel Ami Vétiver. The 'Épice' aspect from Épice Marine, on the other hand, takes on a more independent silhouette with far less, but still slightly perceptible cumin. For context: Épice Marine, created in collaboration with the French chef Oliver Roellinger, is Ellena's open homage to Roudnitska's Eau d'Hermès (1951), and was a subtle spicy aquatic with plenty of reference to the eternal Déclaration (1998) accord, and even more so to the classic revered and often mentioned by Ellena, Roudnitska. Vétiver Tonka, a nutty-hay-like vetiver that represented and advanced the lightweight school in the polyphony of 2000s vetivers. This genealogy, particularly regarding aspects from the Eau d'Hermès / Épice Marine sequence, is present.

A crisp, focused, or captivating vetiver, as the notes might suggest, is not what Vetivera is - here the crux becomes clear once again, what contents occupy, what is inside, and what appears individual. Approaching the fragrance through the proposed reduction to the overall accords of Vétiver Tonka and Épice Marine, Vetivera remains a mood, a nebulous figure emerging from the mist of two perfumes with all their baggage and histories, from which the outlines of several facets can be read - alongside an initially brief and clear pepper note, I perceive subtle coffee associations over time, but there is more, small details, always on the threshold of identifiability. This blur ultimately makes Vetivera quite likable, even though the eternal return, be it DNA, style, or code in fragrances and perfumers, can sometimes be off-putting. As a concentration, Le Couvent states 'Parfum' (!) - the scent quickly becomes close to the skin and, like so many perfumes these days, fades out as a whole. In the final phases, minimal traces of shower gel join the vetiver, remnants of synthetic building blocks.
* Georges Simenon: Maigret's Night at the Intersection. Translation: Annerose Melter. Diogenes, Zurich 1983