New Fragrance: Guerlain Shalimar Ode à la Vanille sur la Route du Mexique (2013)

French fragrance house Guerlain have released a new limited-edition version of one of their most enduring classics, Shalimar (1925), called Shalimar Ode à la Vanille sur la Route du Mexique. The house wanted to offer a more sublime and surprising vanilla to be showcased within this well-known composition and so in-house perfumer Thierry Wasser travelled to Mexico in search of the original vanilla planifolia discovered by the Aztecs...

The limited-edition is a respectful reworking of the jus. A technical process that the house underline is how they use an exclusive tincture method to extract the fragrance from the vanilla beans.

In the end product, a vanilla Sambava - which would hail from Madagascar - was left to infuse for a month in an alcoholic solution in order to release the complexity of its aromas. 

The result is a mix of delicately fruity accents blending with nuances of caramel and chocolate.

The personality of the perfume is said to be both luminous and enveloping, and that of a soft oriental. Notes cited are fresh flowers, bergamot, caramel, chocolate, iris, jasmine, rose incense, opoponax, tonka bean.

Vanilla is a fetish note of perfumer Jean-Paul Guerlain who sees it as a Venusian note cf. our review of Spiritueuse Double Vanille by Guerlain. 

Price is 91€ for 50 ml.