1990 Wild Bhutan Oud One Million

Adam Michael has this to say “Inhaled slowly from the bottle the profile of this 35 year aged wild Bhutan oud, is gourmand, floral, jungle, cooling, saturated resinous, woody, animalic with a sweetness and childlike innocence. Smooth, rounded, and an encyclopaedia of oud excellence, that one uses as a defining reference point when learning about oud oils. This is somewhat of a relic in todays-world as just about everything offered as Bhutanese oud today is plantation and more times than not, a mixture of Indian and Thai ouds.

This on the other hand is the real deal, a museum piece, that with Italian vat, works out at 1.25 million euros per kilo. And even without vat, this still comes in at over the million euro per kilo mark, making it my most expensive (per kilo) aromatic offered to date. (And no I don’t have a kilo in my possession in case you are wondering!) Previous holder of that title within our catalogue was Oud Tabak which worked out at 350K per kilo, sold out – albeit it took quite a long time.

To breakdown the profile further, the opening notes here deliver a cooling sensation, reminiscent of walking in the countryside on an early autumn morning, that cold air sensory experience that wakes you up properly, mixed with the scent of moss, tree foliage, cold woods, incense plumes, green touches, clay, earth, candied menthol breezes, petrichor and finished with waves of trippy brain-buzz euphoria effects and dried tobacco character.

The resinous qualities within this profile are the best I have ever encountered within the ouds I have experienced. Reminding me somewhat of Turkish storax resinous chips, Peru balsam, aged Siam benzoin, super ultra rarity – Wood Juniper absolute (50 hours plus to produce a single gram), mixed with a brightness and tanginess I associate with Mexican White copal and finished with some Fire Tree resin (when burning) and Sultani grade green-blue frankincense tears. This is a a top top top aromatic with more layers than most ouds and probably more layers of aroma are here than I encountered in a limited batch of Narcissus CO2 we offered a few years ago – of which was insane.

Animalic tonalities in play here are present but to my nose nothing overly specific and for the most part of a completely clean nature. If pushed, Id say the base note drivers here comprise of a aged hyraceum x grey ambergris x musk rat infusion, but if true, this is borderline under the threshold of conscious detection. There is a little heat here, possibly in the form of heavily diluted Malay Sarawak Pepper CO2. As for the sweet through to floral notes, for me I pick out a lot of vanilla, gardenia and pink lotus (Crayola) nuances. Woody profile, resin rich through to dry style ouds, antique woody type sandalwoods, freshly distilled cypriol (both rooty and woody tonalities) and some cresole notes. Beyond this I pick out saffron traces, old leather effects and the smell of damp wet rocks and salted driftwood.

Again this was produced 35 years ago, it is as rare as it comes, you don’t find this type of aromatic in any corporate brochure and this truly is a grail piece of the highest order. Dark amber red to almost black in colour and of a slightly thick but pourable viscosity.”

Botanical Name: Aquilaria Malaccensis 

Origin: Bhutan

Production Year: 1990

Oil soluble: Yes 

Alcohol Soluble: Yes

Oud purchases of 2.5g upwards are provided in our own custom glass attar bottle with glass dipstick and metallic cap. Please refer to photography. The green label is applied to plantation ouds and the mustard yellow label is applied to our selection of wild ouds.