Oud Wild Hindi Red No.1

Adam Michael has this to say “This custom distilled Hindi oud is more than just another ultra-high-end luxury aromatic, what we have here is genius in a bottle. Written because for many Western readers we seem to have a very fixed take overall on how a Hindi oud will smell, how it will perform and how it should be used. It’s a crying shame because if you bring money to the table, if you bring the best people to the table, the outcome is Hindi Ouds of such magnificent aromatic beauty, clean, indulgent, high-society, thought-provoking and soul-calming. When India wants to impress, no one beats them in the world of aromatics.

So, as this is my first foray into Indian oud, I employed the services of an Indian oud artisan to provide Hermitage Oils with a custom distillation. And for the record, I did my due diligence and cashed in many favours in order to obtain the services of this producer, the man behind a select few artisan oud vendors who are worshipped like modern day gods.

My objective for the producer was really simple, produce me a work of art. No budget, no constraints, just deliver me your best work. This took three months to produce, he totally delivered and left me so impressed that I already have another custom distillation underway with him.

You see this Hindi Oud plays with the brain, you register this as being Indian/Hindi oud, and yet are left wondering how it is possible because although it has the animalic core of which all other notes are fuelled from, it is at the same time free from anything obnoxiously skank, faecal or barn esq. This is a material with nothing offensive from start to finish, at least to my nose, and you would be forgiven for thinking this oud has been subjected to fractionation or is a co-distillation in order to achieve this end-result, and to be clear it hasn’t. The aroma, applied on the strip or skin (not to be evaluated from the vial), exudes aged Oriental tobacco and intensely fresh mown hay qualities (that you don’t connect with barn), with a sweetened jelly and red ripe plum themed compote, enhanced further with very smooth, fresh-cut, medium to dark woody tonalities. These woody notes are infused with floral aspects comparable to smelling chrysanthemum flowers along with trace to below the lines of conscious detection levels of incense, smoke, resin, castoreum and hyraceum qualities that really give the whole experience a lot of indulgent warmth, weight and mightiness. Very clean, very palatable throughout, high-society, easy to wear, and 1000% masculine with a very clean woody incense dry-down. Applied on my skin type I get approximately 4 hours of wear from a single swipe.

This is wild oud produced via hydro-distillation, amber-orange to jewel red in colour subject to weight, and both alcohol and oil soluble. Photograph taken today 20/02/22 and please note this material is supplied in a clear glass vial and dip-stick.”

Botanical Name: Aquilaria malaccensis

Origin: India

Alcohol Soluble: Yes

Oil Soluble: Yes

Wild Material distilled in 2021