Sumatra Oud

Note Profile

Botanical

About

The raw, barnyard end of oud. Dark animalic leather over damp jungle-floor earth, a resinous wood heart and a fumey incense trail, with a cold wintergreen streak that both sources treat as the Sumatran signature.

Scent Profile

Dry_woody is the base both sources build on, the 'dark, resinous-woody heart'. Animalic is what makes this origin its own note rather than a regional label: Premiere Peau leads with a 'pronounced animalic-barnyard top' and says the chromones behind it are stronger here than elsewhere. Earthy is the 'jungle-floor dampness and volcanic-soil undertone', named twice in the same entry. Leather comes from the 'leather-barn character on opening', which is the same claim as the animalic one seen from a different side, so it is scored below it. Amber_resinous carries 'dark, resinous'. Smoky is Agar Aura's 'dark fumey incensey chord', which it calls the hallmark of every real incense-grade distillation. Cooling_mentholic is the 'frosty wintergreen-blue note' that Agar Aura calls the most blatant defining feature of Sumatran wood against neighbouring Malaysia. Sweet_vanillic is the low end of a real disagreement: Agar Aura's Royal Sumatra has 'so much vanilla and so much cream' that it reads as cream soda and later as vanilla pound cake, while Premiere Peau says Sumatra is 'less sweet than Indian'. It is scored where the two claims overlap rather than at either end, and the 0.24 spread is the disagreement. Below the line, lactonic for the cream, warm_spice and floral for the 'medley of wild flowers and spices' Agar Aura finds in the drydown, and fruity for the cola register.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeBase · ~18h lasting

Family Woody & Earthy, Amber · Musk · Leather

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

Origin

Botanical. Agarwood oil distilled from Aquilaria trees on Sumatra, Indonesia. Premiere Peau attributes the barnyard top to chromone derivatives, naming 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone, and says they are stronger and persist longer here than in other origins. Agar Aura, a distiller working the island, warns that ordinary Indonesian distillation of Sumatran wood 'usually ends up smelling like beef and corn soup. Or burning tires. Depends on the chef.' The profile below is the well-distilled oil, not the average one.

Usage in Perfumery

13 Parfumo placements across 4 brands, absent from Fragrantica. Premiere Peau says it is used 'in dark ambers, animalic compositions, and oud-centric fragrances where wildness is desired over polish.' It is the origin a perfumer reaches for when Cambodian reads too clean.