What it smells like
The lift of alcohol over the depth of something aged in a barrel. Boozy notes carry a volatile sharpness at the top and a sticky, oxidised sweetness underneath. That is why they read as fresh and decadent at once.
Where it stops
Boozy is fermented sweetness. Fruity is fresh sweetness. Rum raisin has crossed the line. Plum has not.
Notes that load on it
Notes from our catalogue whose position on this facet is 0.40 or higher, strongest first. A note is not filed under one facet: it carries a value on all 34 at once, and these are the ones where this axis is doing real work.
-
Whisky
Vanilla
Dry Wood
Base · ~20h
Prepared
178
-
Liquor
Vanilla
Heart · ~5h
Prepared
115
-
Moonshine
Heart · ~4h
Molecule
-
Boozy Notes
Heart · ~8h
Prepared
29
-
Plum Brandy
Fruity
Heart · ~6h
Prepared
2
-
Brandy
Fruity
Heart · ~8h
Prepared
47
-
Apple Liquor
Fruity
Vanilla
Dry Wood
Heart · ~7h
Prepared
-
Cognac
Fruity
Heart · ~8h
Prepared
303
-
Peaty Whisky
Smoky
Earthy
Phenolic
Base · ~22h
Prepared
-
Red Wine
Fruity
Heart · ~4h
Prepared
86
-
Vodka
Top · ~1.5h
Prepared
46
-
Port Wine
Fruity
Heart · ~6h
Prepared
-
Rhum Agricole
Green
Vanilla
Heart · ~4h
Prepared
-
Soju
Top · ~2h
Prepared
-
Cachaça
Green
Vanilla
Heart · ~5h
Prepared
1
-
Rum Ether
Smoky
Top · ~1h
Molecule
-
Rum
Vanilla
Fruity
Base · ~12h
Prepared
906
-
Wine Lees
Fruity
Sour
Nutty
Base · ~10h
Prepared
2
-
Yeast
Earthy
Sour
Animalic
Heart · ~5h
Botanical
1
-
White Wine
Fruity
Heart · ~4h
Prepared
15
Materials that carry it
Real substances, each keyed by its CAS registry number, that an external perfumery vocabulary publishes with a term meaning this facet outright. This is the layer that makes a facet checkable against something outside our own database.
| Material | CAS | Terms | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| propionaldehyde | CAS 123-38-6 | alcoholic, brandy, cognac, winey | |
| ethyl formate | CAS 109-94-4 | alcoholic, cognac, winey | |
| methyl acetate | CAS 79-20-9 | cognac, rummy, winey | |
| isoamyl alcohol | CAS 123-51-3 | alcoholic, cognac, fusel | |
| isoamyl laurate | CAS 6309-51-9 | alcoholic, fusel, winey | |
| ethyl heptanoate | CAS 106-30-9 | cognac, rummy, winey | |
| heptyl decanoate | CAS 60160-17-0 | brandy, cognac, winey | |
| ethyl isobutyrate | CAS 97-62-1 | alcoholic, fusel, rummy | |
| geranyl heptanoate | CAS 73019-15-5 | cognac, fusel, winey | |
| 3-hexanol | CAS 623-37-0 | alcoholic, fusel, rummy | |
| 2-pentanol | CAS 6032-29-7 | alcoholic, fusel, winey | |
| 2-methyl-1-butanol | CAS 137-32-6 | alcoholic, fusel, winey | |
| 3-methyl-1-pentanol | CAS 589-35-5 | cognac, fusel, winey | |
| 1-butoxy-1-ethoxyethane | CAS 57006-87-8 | brandy, rummy, winey | |
| 2-methylpropyl but-2-enoate | CAS 589-66-2 | alcoholic, cognac, rummy | |
| amyl lactate | CAS 6382-06-5 | brandy, cognac | |
| butyl formate | CAS 592-84-7 | brandy, rummy | |
| heptyl acetate | CAS 112-06-1 | rummy, winey | |
| allyl hexanoate | CAS 123-68-2 | cognac, rummy | |
| butyl hexanoate | CAS 626-82-4 | cognac, winey | |
| ethyl octanoate | CAS 106-32-1 | brandy, winey | |
| allyl heptanoate | CAS 142-19-8 | cognac, fusel | |
| decyl propionate | CAS 5454-19-3 | cognac, rummy | |
| ethyl propionate | CAS 105-37-3 | rummy, winey | |
| pentyl decanoate | CAS 5933-87-9 | cognac, winey | |
| pentyl octanoate | CAS 638-25-5 | cognac, winey | |
| propyl octanoate | CAS 624-13-5 | cognac, winey | |
| propyl heptanoate | CAS 7778-87-2 | cognac, winey | |
| isobutyl decanoate | CAS 30673-38-2 | brandy, cognac | |
| phenethyl octanoate | CAS 5457-70-5 | cognac, winey |
Showing 30 of 206. The full set ships with the published standard rather than being paginated here.
Reading the two flags
Declarable means the substance appears in Annex III of the EU Cosmetics Regulation, so it has to be named on the ingredient list once it passes a concentration threshold. IFRA means an IFRA Standard restricts or prohibits its use. Both are facts about the substance, not about any fragrance: a perfume can contain a declarable material below the threshold and never print it, and a restricted material used within its limit is used correctly.
The source also supplies no common name for a large share of materials, so those display as a bare registry number and are ranked last. They are kept because they are real evidence: dropping them would make the vocabulary look better described than it is.
Anchor terms
A facet on its own is just a word we chose. An anchor is what makes it checkable: a term in an external, independently maintained vocabulary of odour descriptions, built for perfumery materials rather than for us. The material list above is drawn from the direct terms only, because a partial term corroborates too weakly to stand as evidence on its own.
Direct
Terms that mean this facet outright
- alcoholic
- boozy
- brandy
- cognac
- fusel
- oak wood,cognac
- rum
- rummy
- winey
Partial
Terms that lean this way but also load elsewhere
- ethereal
- fermented
- fermented, rotten fruit
The rest of Sweet & Gourmand
The other facets in this family. A note can load on any of them at the same time as this one, so they are neighbours rather than alternatives.