Nose: François Demachy
I have never been an enthusiastic fan of all Eau Sauvage versions and flankers, I only love the vintage classic Eau Sauvage and the recent Extreme version from 2010. This Fraîcheur Cuir is a rare and apparently rather neglected flanker which I barely heard about sometimes in then past, I assume also because it was a discontinued limited edition, and now that I got a bottle of it, I can see why it wasn’t apparently that successful. In fact, for being released in 2007, it smells extremely, amazingly close to the vintage version of classic Eau Sauvage, just – as the name says – with an elegant shade of thin, dry leather. That’s it, so the name is perfectly fit: it’s Eau Sauvage at its best, it’s fresh (with a slight, almost unperceivable but well-fitting sort of watery-ozonic vibe at first), and it has leather. All in the most respectable quality you can imagine. As simple as it gets: bracing and pungent at first, slightly more herbal than classic Eau Sauvage maybe (L’Homme de Grès kind of vibrant, pungent green bitterness), gently surrounded by a dry, dark, mannered and austere frame of dry leather, just tinged with a hint of powderiness (lavender, I assume), distantly reminding of some leathery feminine chypres. Simple, but fantastic. An amazing time capsule with a modern vibe, probably too elegantly nostalgic to find its way in nowadays’ market, and a precious and sophisticated homage to Dior’s golden era. Quite worth the price.
8/10
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