Le Boucanier N•O•A•M 2023

The three-masted ship lies off Turtle Island. In the dilapidated hull, mist gathers, and in the heat, the mezcal condenses its earthy cloak over my eyes. Soon they are clouded by its smoke. At the railing, lime pearls shimmer like dew drops in the sunlight over the waves. From the deck, salty, humid swirls blow the spray and seaweed over the cargo, the remnants of gunpowder in the cannons smoldering like matches in pepper. The rum barrels still sweat residual alcohol, warm, damp, brown whorls rising over the wooden boxes with cigars, their dark, spicy roasting aromas of coffee and bitter cocoa beans, nuts, and mulchy woods. They cling tightly to the leathery garments, aged from countless adventures, already hanging in tatters, infused with birch oil, the lure of musk, and the shimmering spots of ambergris. Its floral intoxicated tobacco balm blankets its bouquet over the tropical wood planks. Drunk on the mists of the spoils in the ship's belly, in clothes that stand on their own, I will likely go hunting again tomorrow.
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New Oceans And Meridians (N.O.A.M. Botanical Perfumes) is an olfactory time-travel agency, departing from familiar shores, creating visually striking art, surrounding you with distant places, enveloping you in adventure, and doing so in an absolutely wearable way. The Swiss label exclusively uses high-quality natural raw materials for its complex compositions. It maintains personal contact with small distilleries, traders, and producers.
This passion and emotion, combined with the necessary refinement and patience in the maturation and composition of the individual notes and accords, also opens up the special associative space of "Le Boucanier," the scent of the privateers' ships of the 17th century. From the complexity of the various components, one believes to perceive different nuances with each wear, an effect that can be attributed to the nature of natural, continuously maturing ingredients, not least also in the sheer quantity of ingredients, which here again creates an astonishingly harmonious, multifaceted overall picture.
Dominating from the start are the rum barrels, aromatic-complex Rhum Agricole Martinique in conjunction with the various dark-spicy, mulchy-earthy tropical woods, initially flanked by bright citrus notes (Kaffir lime), smoky-earthy mezcal, peppery-smoky gunpowder, and salty seaweed (from the Baltic Sea, aged 9 months). The heart is defined by a seven-month-aged Romeo y Julieta Mille Fleurs cigar absolute, nutty-woody, with roasting aromas of coffee and bitter cocoa. This is enriched by also self-aged Canadian castoreum, hyraceum, and musk, which contribute birch-tarry-leathery-animalic zibeton notes and woody-sweet-animalic musk notes. The whole is rounded off in the base by warm tropical and sandalwood, as well as ambrette notes, balsamic bouquet-like, softer tobacco aromas, which could stem from white amber. Tropical flowers, which already subtly resonate in the heart, seem to echo, aligning themselves with the mosses, resins, and sweet grasses under the rum barrel-like, slightly smoky, animalic-leathery, cigar tobacco-dominated overall impression. Moderate in projection but clearly above average in longevity. Another masterpiece!