Tobacco – rich and warm and incomparable

My grandfather was a gentle, kind and patient man who loved his grandchildren. My memories of him are deeply entwined with my childhood. He taught us how to whistle, how to tell time and how to plant peonies. He gave us horseback rides, hid candy in his pockets for us to find and had a different voice for every character in the books he read to us. But what I remember most vividly about him, was the rich, sweet smell of his pipe tobacco.

 

People don’t smoke pipes much anymore – probably for a good reason – and it’s been years since I smelled it, but when I caught that first whiff of Tobacco by Franck Boclet, I was surprised at how it brought sweet, loving memories of my Papa to life.

Franck Boclet is a Paris- born Fashion designer who started his career in textile engineering before developing his own bold, ‘punk-chic’ signature style for men’s clothing. This led to a successful career designing collections for couture houses like Kenzo Homme, Courreges and Ungaro. In 2011, he launched his own line, for men and women, called Claw. In 2013, he teamed up nose Melanie Leroux and launched a fragrance line. Each fragrance is named for one key ingredient in the composition and so Tobacco was launched in 2014. I am so taken with this fragrance that it will be difficult for me to find a better tobacco-based scent.

It opens with a note of bright, spicy ginger surrounding a note of rich warm tobacco. I smell plum here too – fruity, sweet and lush – and a door to my childhood blows open. But Tobacco is more than just a trip down memory lane, this EDP comes alive on skin and doesn’t need to rely on sentimental childhood memories to make me love it. It stands on its own as a gorgeous fragrance. As it blooms, clove comes forward and extends the spiciness of the opening deeper into the fragrance. Tonka bean, adds aromatic coumarin, the smell of hay to the heart making it beautifully aromatic. Cedar gives it a woody backbone that is extended to the base with vetiver. Benzoin, with its amber aspects, and vanilla are at the base too, sweetening up the woods just enough so that it smells like true pipe tobacco.

The drydown is rich, warm, sensual and intimate. The thing I most love about this fragrance is that the tobacco is prominent, and stays right through to the drydown.

Writing this, there is an urgency to tell you about Tobacco and how much I love it, how I relive the excitement of that first whiff each time I do. And I realize how eager I am to share it.

But those sweet memories of my Papa that the fragrance evokes, well, those are just for me.

Check out Tobacco in our Shop.