Plum Wine

Note Profile

Prepared 3 perfumes

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About

Plum wine is Japanese umeshu: unripe ume fruit steeped in shochu with sugar. The note is the finished liqueur, not the fruit. Its identity is a sour edge cutting a fruity sweetness. The taste is plainly sweet and sour. A quieter almond note sits behind that, released by the ume stone.

Scent Profile

Plum wine smells of ripe stone fruit, closer to apricot than to dark plum. A sharp, tart sourness cuts straight through the sweetness. Underneath is a quiet almond note, released the way marzipan releases its own kernel scent. A clean, low warmth from the spirit itself runs through the base, more shochu than fiery liquor.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeHeart · ~5h lasting

Family Fruity

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

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ScentArt

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Materials That Can Make This Note

Perfumers can build Plum Wine from materials such as:

Benzaldehyde almond · cherry · cinnamon

Smell words come from published sources.

Allergens perfumes with this note can list: Bitter almond

A given perfume with this note may use some of these, or something else, and may or may not contain the allergens above.

Origin

Prunus mume, picked unripe and green, steeped whole in shochu. Ume is botanically closer to apricot than to plum. The aroma-chemistry paper calls the drink Japanese apricot liqueur. Benzaldehyde from the stone is the almond carrier, and it starts high and falls during storage, which the study links to the drink gaining complexity. Finished strength is about 10 to 15 per cent alcohol. This note is the plain steeped liqueur. The Choya Special, aged in French oak, adds a smoky cask layer the base product does not have.

Usage in Perfumery

A heart note for fruit accords that need an acid edge instead of more sugar. Use it where plum or plum-liqueur reads as jam. It sits with green tea, shiso, rice and light woods. The almond tail lets it bridge into cherry and marzipan materials without turning gourmand. It will not carry a base on its own.