Spirited Scents
Inspired by bar essentials ranging from rum to Riesling, these boozy fragrances let you have your drink, and wear it too.
Have you ever loved a wine so much, you wished you could enjoy it all the time? This is possible with niche perfumes that evoke the olfactory bouquet of iconic wines, and spirits, from Chardonnays to Cognacs. Cross-pollination between the worlds of wine and spirits with that of perfume is only natural – smell, is after all, such an integral part of the tasting experience. Just ask Ryan Clift of Tippling Club, who debuted a perfume-themed cocktail menu of 12 drinks with enticing monikers, such as Blush of Rose, Sandalwood and Bloody Cologne earlier this year. According to Clift, each drink features the “top notes, mid notes and base notes” structure of a classic fragrance.
Much like how bartenders may use a perfume’s fragrance structure in their cocktails, so too do perfumers create fragrances that allude to certain types of wine and spirits, whether it’s the light fruitiness of a Sauvignon Blanc, or the savoury smoke of a mezcal. So intertwined are the worlds of fragrance and wine that some winemakers have become perfumers. Hennessy Cognac heir Kilian Hennessy’s eponymous perfume line, By Kilian’s (www.bykilian.com) latest range, the Cellar Icons Set, is designed to recreate his childhood memories of the family cellars, with its “very strong woodsy, vanilla smell that is a combination of the oak barrels with the sugar of the spirits.”
Meanwhile, Maison Ginestet (www.maison-ginestet.com), a French Bordeaux wine specialist, teamed up with a Grasse perfumer to develop fragrances that showcase the hues and aromas of Bordeaux wines. Its Botrytis perfume (which comes in a flacon topped with a gold grape leaf) is a sweet elixir inspired by the famed sweet wines of the Sauternes region, while La Boise expresses the aromas of new wood, vanilla and red wine and is presented in a miniature wine bottle.