Simple syrup, water, bitters, ice, bourbon and garnish. Not a ton of ingredients, but, put together it creates a drink that dates all the way back to the 1800s and that is…the Old Fashioned. It’s an amazing sipping cocktail that is a unique way to enjoy whiskey without just drinking it straight up. The additional ingredients make the flavor of the whiskey much more vibrant and, let’s face it, it’s just flat out a bougie way to drink as an adult.
Kilian is known for their ornate bottles that resemble liquor decanters and, while you can’t in fact drink these fragrances, they DO resemble the essence of the liquor that the name suggests. So, when you make an old fashioned or get one at a bar or buy a pre-made cocktail to have at home like I do, the first thing you do is smell it. In this instance, smell does NOT equal taste…ever. While the taste IS an acquired taste, it doesn’t exactly resemble the smell you get from the drink itself.
Wheat and davana in the opening, immortelle and cedar in the mid and tolu balsam & styrax in the base. Davana is a green, herbal fougere note with some balsamic undertones. Immortelle is also a green herb fougere but resembles hay, tobacco and honey. Tolu balsam is a musky note and styrax is also a balsamic note with some woody notes as well. None of this really looks like it would equal the smell that would come from an old fashioned, but I will tell you, they nailed the scent profile. It’s uncanny.
However, I feel it necessary to point out a glaring elephant in the room. A quintessential version of Shaggy pulling the mask off of one person and it’s someone totally different underneath, if you will. I’m talking about fragrance cash grabs again. :sigh:
A few years ago, all the community talked about was flankers on flankers on flankers. Perfect example: how long did the OG Acqua di Gio go without a flanker, but now how many have we had since then? Like 12? Ok, more like 10. It didn’t just stop with Armani though, it was everywhere. In my opinion, Ralph’s Club was the worst. Just under three years with a rapid succession of spitting out the same fragrance with slight tweaks along the way just to make a few extra bucks isn’t the way to win over the dedicated community. I can’t even imagine what it’s like for a first-time buyer! Imagine going up to a Macy’s counter and they put 4 bottles down in front of you and ask you to tell the differences in scent profiles? My head would explode.
While the flanker crisis isn’t subsiding, fragrance companies now are migrating to a different tactic and seems to be working. Here’s another example – remember Prada Luna Rossa Sport? You know, the silver and red bottle, not a terrible fragrance but not the best either? Well, that fragrance was discontinued a few years ago. Gone but not forgotten. Or is it? You see, it’s 2024 now, and lo’ and behold, Luna Rossa Sport is back baby! Same formulation (seems to be at the moment), but just a slightly different bottle to match the newer rubber bottom/glass top style that Luna Rossa is adopting. So why do this? Why make the community go out and buy backups of a “dying fragrance” only to be met with its fraternal twin brother a year or so later? Answer: Money baby!
You see, Kilian Old Fashioned is just a “re-do” of Kilian Single Malt. While it didn’t share the same ornate decanter-style bottle, it is/was more or less the same identical fragrance with only slightly different notes. So yes, it’s pretty much like Scooby Doo caught Single Malt, took it’s mask off and it’s just a new bottle of Old Fashioned underneath.
I get it, fragrance companies can do whatever they want and that’s the beauty of free enterprise. Where the problem is though, is that too many of these niche fragrances are selling themselves off to larger corporations and losing their touch. They’re losing the essence that made them who they are and when you think you’ve found Kilian, you pull the mask off and someone else is there instead, swimming in a pool of gold like Scrooge McDuck.
Final Thoughts
Getting back to the fragrance itself, I think it’s got a very muted opening. Not a lot of punch to the gut like something like Angels Share has when you first spray it. The dry down is where it settles down and the real beauty of the fragrance starts to shine.
I sprayed this on my official testing arm (right arm actually) early in the morning and had my official secondary nose sniffer (my wife) smell it as well and her general consensus was the same as mine. It was good, not awful, but also not great. I mean, if I were to give this one an official score, I’d give it a solid 6.8 out of 10. Again, the fact that Kilian was able to mimic that same essence from that delicious beverage is downright criminal, but I think if it just had more substance to it, maybe it would have brought it up to an 8 out of 10.
Grab a decant for yourself here and let me know your thoughts. Sorry I rambled there a bit, just had to be said though! Hope you all have a great day, and I’ll catch you in the next one! Peace!
