Oud Reviews

[jalil]

@jensz very nice review 😉

 

[Ammar]

HUDHAYL. Al Shareef Oudh.　

This Hindi from Al Shareef is exquisite. It starts with barn of dignified and noble character -- leather and hay and slight pasture all in balance. A combo of medicinal plus gentle smoke notes peek in. The barn is complemented with some resin and sweetness, plus spices and mentholy herbs. Maybe I detect similar notes in other Hindi oils, but they are seldom quite so fine, so complex, and in so perfect a balance as in Hudhayl. The overall profile is reminiscent of the top-notch no-longer-available classic (aged) Hindis, but whereas those oils could be flat, Hudhayl shimmers with life. It's like comparing an immobile window with a many-faceted prism rotating in the sunlight. I've worn Hudhayl twice so far, and during one wear a deep, gorgeous, decidedly floral note came to the fore and lasted a few hours. I could not identify the floral but it was one of the most beautiful, soul-touching olfactory experiences. I'm reluctant to describe the floral note in such terms because I didn't experience it the second wear, so most likely it will appear some times and not others. Which is just fine, variation is part of the discovery and adventure, plus Hudhayl so well-wrought and complex that I imagine that any variations will be thoroughly delightful. Hudhayl suits any gender; longevity was all day (was still going strong after 12 hours).

Hudhayl has adjusted my notion of what a Hindi oil can be: I now see that a classic Hindi oil need not be only barn and brawn, but can also be spectacularly beautiful. All I can do is congratulate Al Shareef and wear Hudhayl again ASAP.

@jensz,
Do you think it is a real barn or just illusion created by the intense and dense packed and rich resinous aromas, something inherited in the distilled wood maybe not an outsider? I have the same dilemma with Anhaar (resinous with chocolate coated roasted nuts notes and a hint of incense with some spices) which I consider it as the same family with Hudhayl being the latter steps above due to more complexity and refinement. Both are sitting on the fence between the classical barn Hindi and the new non-barn Hindi ones, where the performance catching the best of these two genres in my opinion although many probably would disagree. I like to name it as ASO genre LOL!

 

[firdaous]

Forget about ALL you know about Oud...order a Full bottle of Sinharaja from IO and than come back to me ! Truly Incredible !
A tiny sample received today and a full bottle ordered straight away.

 

[Ammar]

@firdaous
Chill bro! I’m sure you don’t mean it as I know you but with such a strong yet personal statement, the reader might think you are advertising to that specific vendor, which is unintentionally bad to vender themselves.

 

[firdaous]

@Ammar thanks for your husn dzan my Brother and friend 🙂
But i am lost in translation since I smelled Sinharaja 🙂 and I still asking myself if I should get 2 bottles instead of one !

 

[5MeO]

It is easy to get excited and recommend purchases, that is for sure!

Great review Jensz - looking forward to trying Hudhayl myself! I have become very fond of the Hindi oils that are not too strong on the barnyard - the issue with a strong barnyard oil is that it pretty much dominates the experience, at least for me - I can't really enjoy the natural aroma of the wood as well.. I like stronger barnyard oils also, but they are an experience that I need to be all about the fermented smell for..

 

[jensz]

@Ammar, that's a good question! I hadn't thought whether the barn in Hudhayl or Anhaar was barn itself or illusion created by complexity. But when I first sniffed both of these, it did strike me as genuine, magnificent barn. Personally, I don't care for the non-barn Hindis, and I adore both Anhaar and Hudhayl, so that tells me something! However next time I try these I will keep your very interesting distinction in mind! 🙂 And I think you are on to something with ASO being a genre unto itself. Based on the description (and your review 🙂) Aasiyah seems to embody ASO's special approach with stunning results. I will want to try this one.

Update: And to be honest Ammar, I followed the discussions about where the barnyard note comes from -- from the wood itself (perhaps occasionally) or from the fermentation process (most of the time). To be honest though, I do not use the wood directly, so if the barn aroma can come from wood, I am not sure how I can discern that with my limited experience. ): I wish I weren't so averse to smoke otherwise I would be down the wood rabbit hole too.

 

[jensz]

It is easy to get excited and recommend purchases, that is for sure!

Great review Jensz - looking forward to trying Hudhayl myself! I have become very fond of the Hindi oils that are not too strong on the barnyard - the issue with a strong barnyard oil is that it pretty much dominates the experience, at least for me - I can't really enjoy the natural aroma of the wood as well.. I like stronger barnyard oils also, but they are an experience that I need to be all about the fermented smell for..

@5MeO, Hudhayl has so much happening the barn doesn't dominate in the problematic way you note, you'd enjoy exploring it that's for sure. 🙂

 

[Ammar]

@Ammar thanks for your husn dzan my Brother and friend 🙂
But i am lost in translation since I smelled Sinharaja 🙂 and I still asking myself if I should get 2 bottles instead of one !

It seems that your nose is desperately craving for something different than your huge collection of classical barn Hindis LOL!

 

[Habz786]

Lately i've been craving a oudy oud just a dark deep incensy oud no florals no fruit just pure woodyness...............😎.....Sorry this is so random

 

[Ammar]

Lately i've been craving a oudy oud just a dark deep incensy oud no florals no fruit just pure woodyness...............😎.....Sorry this is so random

Have you tried Sultan Sufyan by Ensar? It might satisfy your craving.

 

[Habz786]

Have you tried Sultan Sufyan by Ensar? It might satisfy your craving.

Nope i'll have to sample this thanks for the suggestion brother!

 

[firdaous]

It seems that your nose is desperately craving for something different than your huge collection of classical barn Hindis LOL!

True ! You forget my lovely musky wild animalics Chinese Ones 🙂

 

[Sahafi]

After repeated wearings of Hudhayl, I return to my initial impression that indeed, it feels like an old soul oud. Good work Jawed!

 

[jensz]

@PEARL, thanks, and oh I love that binary code comparison! It really is illuminating to think about the notes being on and off. Thank you very much for sharing that conceptual tool.

Your comparison between Hudhayl and Lalitya makes lots of sense. . . I'll have to sniff my Lalitya sample again with it in mind. 😉

 

[Ammar]

@jensz ....Hudhayl, IMO shares some similarities to Agar Aura's Lalitya with the exception being that the latter is truly non-barn, whereas Hudhayl has a barny element. I think that the wood used for both were of similar origin as well as being very similar in the type, quantity and quality of the oil bearing component of the wood, mature and resinous. Based on that I don't think that the animalic and barny note seen in Hudhayl is intrinsic to the wood itself(with some of the Chinese oils I do think its animalia/barny quality is due to the wood), but rather a difference in distillation parameters and that artisans unique vision and methodology.

@PEARL,
Is it slightly a big statement to think that the wood of both is the same while you haven’t tried the wood of both or at least visually compared unless you got privately some of Lalitya wood? Credit goes to Al-Shareef that he openly revealed the grade of wood went into distillation that you can even purchase and proved by many to be high grade either by visual inspection or by its unique burning scent profile, not the case with Lalitya since I don’t know what the wood went into distillation although definitely a high grade but I don’t know how high it is or if it reaches the level of the Mandalee-like wood Al-Shareef is proud to share due to its rarity and uniqueness as I understand…and they are different oils enough to my nose with some similarity being Hudhayl more resinous, denser and more intense in aromas not related to the barn. On the opposite, I recall two experimental distillations of the exact batch of incense grade Maroke by Ensar resulted in completely different oils you cannot guess in a hundred years that they are originally from the same exact wood.


…and your abstract image is excellent as always.

 

[Al Shareef Oudh]

@PEARL

As per AA's website the wood for LALITYA is from " The raw materials consisted of wild agarwood from the furthest north-eastern reaches of India right below Tibet."

The wood for Hudhayl comes from a totally different region in India, the Assam region between Tripura and Meghalaya extending into Bangladesh. From agarwoods the wood from this region is the few woods that has a natural complex barn. This brings me to an interesting point you make, which Chinese woods have this animalia/barny quality that you refer to, would be interesting to note.

 

[Al Shareef Oudh]

@PEARL

There is a key distinction that AA makes due to the rarity of wood from this area "...north-eastern reaches of India right below Tibet", for those who know the Indian oudh landscape that is a very specific area. That is the land of India that stretches north right below Tibet, between Kathmandu and Bhutan. This region is to the North of the Brahmputra River, in higher altitude land.

Hudhayl comes from an area some 500-600km S.South East of where AA is referencing, on the Southern Side of the Brahmputra River. Totally different regions.

Okay so it's only your thinking, rather than actually having smelt a Chinese wood with the animalia/barny characteristic, then smelling the associated oil.

Thanks for clarifying.

 

[Ammar]

@Ammar keywords- I think; similar origin; very similar quality; share similarities(which from reading and attempting to comprehend, you say as well).Far from saying or thinking they're the same.

My apology I misunderstood “same ORIGIN” which for me refers to the same patch, tree…something very close like this. So what you mean by same origin if I may ask? Anyways, my point is that I have a high appreciation to those few oils that the vendor was able to provide a glimpse to the wood went into distillation so I have the pleasure to compare the level of the artistic work and how the oil captured the spirit of the wood, a risky move by the vender to be honest, like Hudhayl by ASO, Kinam Rouge by EO, Borneo Adventure2 by FO... Some sort of immunity as there is visual evidence of the EXACT wood of the juiced oil that I can’t break by comparing them subjectively to the others and able to conclude the close wood similarity based only on the scent similarity, maybe vaguely like the species, region...My opinion and my appreciation.

 

[Ammar]

What I said:
sim·i·lar
ˈsim(ə)lər/
adjective
1.
resembling without being identical

What you're saying:
same
sām/
adjective
1.
identical; not different.

Oops! no I mean about ORIGIN...and thank you for the clarification between the difference of "similar" and "same" as I was, until this moment, using them interchangeably LOL!