The art and science of barrel aging

Our goal has always been to create a fragrance house dedicated to forest, trees and wood. Early on, we wanted to infuse wood into every aspect of our scents and to do so, we started looking into the fundamental composition of a typical fragrance.

Fragrances are essentially solutions (at various levels of concentration) of essential oils in alcohol. The more pure (and clean) the alcohol, the less it will interfere with the scent creation. Which led perfumers, since the rise of modern perfumery more than 125 years ago, to use ethanol.

We didn’t think it had to be that way forever.

We asked ourselves what would happen if the alcohol wasn’t an invisible part of the composition but became one more ingredient in the perfumer’s palette. We wondered if different scents would react better, thus requiring different types of alcohol. If the alcohol could add to the scent, make it more in some way. Alcohol with benefits, if you will.

And so we started collecting wooden barrels whenever we came across them. From Scotland to Kentucky to Cognac. Vintage barrels that had given life to spirits many times over. And new barrels that had yet to age anything, but whose wood had already lived a lifetime in a forest somewhere.

We aged organic alcohol in our barrels and compared the effects. The impact of the barrels on the alcohol itself was rich, deep, intriguing. Adding the aged alcohol to scents created a similarly intriguing effect.

And so, it didn’t take long to convince the perfumers that we had found a new way to formulate scents.

As of today, we have been experimenting with 5 types of barrels:
American oak • French oak • Acacia • Chestnut • Vintage cognac.