Over-exposure to inferior ‘oud-based’ fragrances on offer all over, coupled with a lack of experience with the kind of aroma real connoisseurs go after, leaves many misinformed about what makes good oud oil.
Good Agarwood
Your first encounter with oud might very well have been an enlightening moment, or even a completely insignificant one.. Regardless of that first impression, your olfactory sense on that day was essentially numb, and your experience veiled from the allure that brings fragrance-lovers back to oud oil, time and time again.
At this stage, you think oud is oud. You have little knowledge about the intricacies those seasoned enthusiasts take into consideration – was the oil extracted from wild Agarwood, or cultivated? From young saplings or trees decades old? Steam or hydro distilled? Aged or not? From India or Indonesia? And so on.
Finding oud oil is not difficult. Finding exceptional oud oil is a different story. It fact, it’s next to impossible to get hold of anymore. The highest quality oud oil was extracted from wild trees that were left to naturally mature in unspoilt soil for decades. This is unheard of today.
Until recently the wild agarwood trade was a civil affair. Then with a big bang, wild forests have since been wiped off the map by profit-driven campaigns to obtain as much of the material as possible, as quickly as possible, the bulk of which then goes off to the Chinese market.
But finding premium grade agarwood is only half the story. A great deal of fantastically good agarwood has been wasted due to poor distillation procedures – granite in the hands of an amateur is not quite the same as in the hands of Donatello.
The value of the agarwood from which it’s extracted, and the meticulousness of the distillation process itself, are the two main factors determining the quality of your Oud.
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