Chergui

Let's talk about terroir for a moment, and a hobby of mine that unfortunately very few can relate to these days: cigars. (Skip to the second paragraph if you have zero interest in this.) Most people who know the bare minimum about cigars know that Cuban cigars are the most coveted, and usually the benchmark for cigars throughout the world. This is not due to Cuban makers' superb blending abilities or quality control. Any aficionado will be able to tell you that Cuban makers' creativity throughout the cigar making process, from growing to fermenting and aging to blending to selling, is quite low; and Communist government-run entities (which the majority of Cuban cigar makers are to some degree by Habanos, S.A.) have notoriously poor quality control. No, what makes them coveted are the unique terroir of Cuba and the Cuban seed tobacco they hold with vicious defense. The Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and quickly-catching-up Honduras, have hands-down surpassed Cuba in creativity and quality control, but those countries terroirs and tobacco seed aren't like Cuba's, and, therefore, neither are their cigars. The principle is no different from wine, just listen to an argument between a California winemaker and a French winemaker to confirm it. For decades, and even quite a bit now, the French refused to acknowledge that California can make wine that is just as good as French wine simply because California's terroir is not French and therefore the wine cannot be as good. They're wrong, of course. Chergui does this interesting thing of presenting us tobacco, in a perfume, that seems to have come from a unique terroir not able to be replicated anywhere else.

Absolutely the best tobacco scent i've ever experienced. And i've got a few...Dior Tobacolor, Mancera Red Tobacco, Montale Oud Tobacco, Tom Ford Tobacco Oud, Jazz Club, Tobacco Honey by Guerlain and more.... but........Chergui is absolutely in a different class altogether. My number one. Just a truly rich majestic tobacco scent with the right touch of spice and sweetness. It smells organic and natural, realistic. The delicious warmth of the honey and summer sunset scent of hay set off the tobacco like a dream sequence and work perfectly in harmony. There's a really subtle and off-key iris here that probably explains why some people are getting a baby powder smell. To me its just a subtle edge that gives it an old school gentlemanly classic touch of fougere barbershop...but its just a mere hint which makes it so amazing, maybe about 10% noticeable/prominent. What a fantastic and original idea. Its just GORGEOUS to me and highly innovative, its a genuinely original take on the tobacco scent genre. Unique. Imaginative. There's no ashtray vibe here, just a good life-affirming shag!

The first time i experienced chergui, i received a 5ml miniature with my bas de soie order. This was back when i believed i only liked realistic florals, so you can imagine how this didn’t really work for me. Over the two years of owning the sample, i kept returning to it. As time passed, my taste as a whole changed. I started accepting that perfumery just cannot capture the true beauty of flowers in real life. So i basically gave up on ‘photorealistic’ florals and went into more vintage amber territory with my tastes, starting with l’heure bleue and eventually shalimar. Chergui kept getting more beautiful as i sampled it on my skin, and after 2 whole years, i caved and got a full bottle.

Serge Lutens is a niche French house that has been around for a long time, that specialises in really fine perfumery that sits distinct from the mainstream in terms of quality but also in accords. It is unconventional perfumery but not in an over-provocative way. It is more thinky than shouty if that makes sense, and so it should come as no surprise to anyone who follows my reviews that this is a house I very much enjoy. This is my kind of fragrance. I own two from this house: Poivre Noir which is the loveliest study on the many facets of black pepper against sweet, rich woods and a little bit of spice as you could imagine, and Chergui which is the subject of this review today.

Yes its really rather lovely - the initial spray is gorgeous as you get a flurry of florals, especially iris - but very quickly, almost immediately, it tones down to a tobacco-hay-amber blend with an ever so slight medicinal edge. The floralness goes but some sweetness stays with the primarily tobacco-hay mix. Over the next couple of hours the medicinal edge vanishes completely and the long dry down is a soft powdery musk with soft tobacco. Chergui is very lovely for winter - think a wood panelled room in the evening, a fireplace, perhaps sipping an Irish coffee in your favourite leather chair. Sophisticated, warm, but more dry than wet tobacco. Perfectly unisex.