Wherever people talk about oud, the name 'Oriscent' comes up. To many ouddicts and connoisseurs, it's the benchmark. Year after year, I'm reminded of the Oriscent legacy – of the kind of oud people wish they could get more of.
But to be frank, I'm tired of hearing it.
The Oriscent oils are so famous it's hard to keep up with them. My 'Ensar Oud' oils are constantly compared to the Oriscent legends. To this day, I get asked if I have any 'Oriscent oldies' stashed away. I feel as though I debuted with my magnum opus – and from then on had the task of matching what was already great.
I'll confess, the Oriscent days were something else. The wood we got our hands on. The people we got to work with. Ouds I've never smelled the likes of since. No need to tell you what it now takes to get the same agarwood Borneo 4000 was distilled from. Not to mention that many of our old time partners are now proud restaurant owners or real estate moguls. Many of their distilleries have been defunct for well over a decade.
When our Taiwanese kyara master says, 'Guallam' (Hokkien for 'Vietnam'), he's talking about a whole other genre of oud. Different to the Malays, the Papuas, the Kalimantans… To him, 'Guallam' means oud as in the OUD of Kyara jungles.
I know of only two recent attempts at distilling Vietnamese oud. Both batches commanded $1,500 - $2,000 / 3 gr, and both yields were minuscule (I don't need to tell you that wild incense-grade Vietnamese agarwood is rare and expensive).
Vietnamese oud is not green. It's not supposed to smell green.
Wait, let me say that again. You can make Vietnamese oud smell green. You can say that Vietnamese sinensis ought to mimic the green chords of kyara. But the vintage scent Chinese collectors talk about when they say 'Guallam' is not green. The most prized Vietnamese ouds in history are not green. Think vintage Laotian ouds, think Yunnan. Do any of them smell even remotely green?
It was going to be red. With an ever present kinam note whispering throughout the drydown.
First, forget Laos. Forget Koh Kong and Hainan. Don't try to dig up any relation with oud from neighboring areas which will only give you a strong animalic comparison to figure out.
I'm not even going to talk about barn. Kinam Rouge has none. Not even vaguely.
Instead, think iris. Deep red ripe tobacco leaf laced with cherries and other über-vibrant psychedelics that take shape right under your nostrils. Spice and red flesh of tobacco leaf laced with kinam, which leads the drydown. All punctuate the most incredibly vibrant aroma you can imagine. Reminds me of the old Cambodis I only get to sniff each time I pay Mr Sokha a visit. As old world and as spicy and as red, but this has something altogether unique, thanks to its Vietnamese origin… this incredibly decadent tobacco note that to me is absolutely enthralling.
The tabac note scintillates clean and crisp, laced with cherries as when you're heating up molasses for shisha. As you swoon into the heart of the dance, incense chords and cherry notes are fully married to set a mood that's deep maroon à la the suavest pipe tobacco you can think of. The more the scent unravels, the clearer the bitter kinam note emerges from the back, until it sits center stage.
I didn't know a friend of a friend whose cousin's uncle had a stash of Vietnamese chips stowed away and was willing to sell it to me at a friend's discount. Nor do I have any Vietnamese wood left from my Oriscent days. So, oud like this can't come cheap.
I think I'm speaking for everyone who wants to do another Vietnamese oil when I say: "That'll be all folks." We did this one three years ago already, and along with prices, the degree of cheating in the Vietnam oud scene seems to go up every year. Certainly, we won't be able to ever make another one with this price tag.
I know that every connoisseur needs a Vietnam oil on their palette, so I've been pressing the minus button on my calculator a couple of times over to make Kinam Rouge as affordable as the Vietnamese market will allow me. I'm even doing something I've never done before and offering 1.5 gram bottles so that as many oud lovers as possible can get their hands on a bottle of Rouge.
When you're talking investment, think the way Chinese collectors think about it: Guallam is Guallam, and everything else is everything else.
Kinam Rouge is a $2,500 smell and I could have easily aged the oil for another five to ten years and sold it at a premium. Consider this my gift to you, my loyal old timers who to this day can't stop raving about your old Oriscent oils.
I ended up putting on a swipe of Kinam Rouge on my birthday instead of Sultan Mustafa. This was the first time I experienced the oil on my own skin and thus the anticipation was at an all time high.
The tornado of scents were coming in at light speed and I found myself caught up in the feeling the oil was delivering more than trying to analyze the various notes. That being said, the notes were easily picked apart during the journey. There's a clear cherry tobacco scent which was the dominant and most salient note I was picking up. Every so often the tobacco would linger off and fruit wine or brandy would poke its head in for a hello; left over cherry wine left over night or the such. A touch and go of camphor and mint was always welcome.
KR is a rainbow oud without all the colour. Back and forth from red and brown. Dark red and bright brown. Brown has never smelled so good. It's not a light brown, but a BRIGHT brown. It was as if the sun shifted colours and was delivered as an olfactory package instead of ocular.
Right… now I get what Kinam is having tried two now. It's the complete perfume richness. Other Oud oils have notes, usually in harmony, but Kinam, I think, is all about the dense, rich cloud of… kinamness?! Oh, and as with the last while writing these words, dear Basenoters, the lady of the house just came right up to me and let me know how nice it was on me. As with Purple Kinam the scent hardly changed through 12 hours.
Now, as for the scent itself, it's clearly Oud but the character is in a way cedarish. Probably not phrasing this very well, but the scent does have a colour, and to me it's not pure red but rather the reddish-orange of cedar, finished with tung oil.
Today I traveled to the Kulen Mountain, birthplace of the Khmer Empire and mystical mountain with a powerful river and waterfall. I swiped Kinam Rouge while on the mountain, and being out in nature opened its scent to me in such a deeper way.
I picked up such a rich and spicy kinam sweetness from the opening. Explosive oudiness, oozing with a mature plum, incense smoke, warmth and smoothness.
I could smell it while swimming in the waterfall and then after the waterfall I swiped again and felt such waves of bliss. It has such a strong sillage and such a balanced and rich aroma.