L’Artisan Havana Vanille

09/18/09 10:21:21

By: Mark Behnke

Are we wise enough to realize when greatness is occurring right in front of us? Without the focus that the lens of time gives us can we recognize the masterpiece when we first encounter it? If you go by the words of Bertrand Duchaufour, from his recent Fragrantica interview by Michelyn Camen, “I am sure of one thing: time is the best judge of a fragrance.”

His answer is to look back in a few years and you will know the truth. As a reviewer of new scents my temporal imperative is different than M. Duchaufour’s and I am forced top make judgments in the here and now. I am already convinced that M. Duchaufour is the best perfumer working currently and it is my opinion that time will be kind to his works when we can apply the appropriate perspective to them.

Havana Vanille is the latest addition to his portfolio that he has created for L’Artisan. For me his creations of Timbuktu and Dzongkha are the best of what he has created for L’Artisan and Havana Vanille is part of the same “travel series” that contains Timbuktu and Dzongkha. To date, M. Duchaufour has particularly wowed me with his deft use of incense and I would have expected any scent of his that I would consider to be one of his best to contain that note. Color me surprised because I think Havana Vanille is the best scent Bertrand Duchaufour has made to date and there isn’t any incense to speak of. What is there is a heady mix redolent of the Caribbean; full of vanilla, rum, and tobacco.

From the beginning the vanilla appears. This is the vanilla of the pod. It has subtlety and a power to it. To use vanilla at the top a perfumer has to be sure that what goes with it can stand up to an accord that can, and often does, overwhelm the other notes around it. M. Duchaufour chooses as the partner for his vanilla, what comes off, as a dark rum, on my skin. There is a spiciness lurking under the boozy quality and that sets up a very slight contrast to the sweetness of the vanilla. If there was a scent called Vanilla and Rum and this was what it smelled like I would be a happy man. The heart of Havana Vanille is where M. Duchaufour really shows off his creativity as he creates a beautiful tobacco accord without using tobacco. Again, from Ms. Camen’s interview, in his own words:

“I combined more than 15 materials producing more than 80% of the whole formula; the original one I worked with was the narcisse absolute, a very rich facetted raw material, which was at the heart of the composition and gave way to the subtle alliance of narcissus, everlasting flower (immortelle) and tonka bean. This accord is reminiscent of tobacco leaf- which is both honey-sweet and narcotic.”

The artistry required to use other notes to create an accord that you can get by itself is truly amazing to me. I have only recently become enamored of Guerlain Nahema, which is perhaps the greatest rose scent ever created, which contains no natural or synthetic source of rose. M. Duchaufour has done the same in Havana Vanille with tobacco but unlike Jean-Paul Guerlain he has let us glimpse the trick behind the sleight of hand he has used. I enjoy scents based around all three of the notes he used to create this tobacco accord; the narcissus in Neil Morris’ Gotham, the immortelle in Annick Goutal’s Sables, and the tonka in Parfums de Nicolai Vanille - Tonka.

I go to each of those scents when I want to experience my benchmark of those notes. I can’t imagine what alchemy would make one believe that those three notes together would create one of the richest tobacco accords I’ve experienced. I can smell the leaf, and it’s not there. This is what sets the creative outside of those who create if you catch my meaning.

The base returns to more familiar territory as some of the themes from earlier Duchaufour works show up as a smoky, woody accord appears along with the continued presence of the vanilla and a very slight hint of incense far off in the distance. The base allows for the contemplation of all that has come before as the vanilla stays with you until the end.

Havana Vanille has above average longevity on me and projects slightly below average. Which is fine with me, because when I am wearing something this good I want to keep every sniff to myself. Havana Vanille is due to be released in October of 2009 and I think this is going to be worn by many perfumistas throughout the cold-weather months and at the top of many of their wish lists. I know it is right at the very top of mine.

Images: photografix.ca, zedzap, acfou, mecredis

Author: Mark Behnke (Somervill Metro Man)
Fragrantica Writer

Mark Behnke is based in Somerville, MA, a suburb of Boston, and is the writer for Fragrantica. By day, he works as a research chemist in a pharmaceutical company. By night, he has been a consistent poster on the forums at Basenotes.net under his nom de blog, Somerville Metro Man. You can also follow Mark on Twitter @SomMetroMan if you're curious to find out what he wears on a day-to-day basis.

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