Winter Delice (Guerlain)

By Thomas

Among all the seasons and their smells, I find Winter the most enticing - there’s more depth and excitement to winter’s smells than any other time of year. My preference may stem in part from the brief Texas winters, but I prefer to think that winter is also the time when we spend more time together and do more cool things that we do no other time of year. I mean, when else would you dare wear a reindeer sweater???

Enter Guerlain Winter Delice. Winter Delice is part of Guerlain’s Aqua Allegoria line, a group of high-quality but simply-composed light-wearing fragrances. Well, I guess that was part of the initial scope of this line-up, but Winter Delice is not all that simple. The opening is a big jolt of crisp scents – fir and pine, cloves and ginger. I love these scents, but I’m not as enthusiastic about this composition.

Early on, a brassy/copper note comes in – I don’t know anything else to call this one, other than brassy. It comes and goes – what, are these sleigh bells? I’m not sure I go for this. It kind of intrudes on the whole tree/fireplace/cooking reverie. (Note, I do not mean to say “cooking tree” – the tree is not in the kitchen!)

Eventually the fir and cloves recede, making way for light incense and gingerbread (ginger and molasses). The good news is that it’s not heavy and gloomy as some incense compositions tend to be, but rather it’s light, airy, and slightly stinging like cold air to the face – is that the brass returning to join the ginger and incense? Wispy and brittle, but well-balanced.

I like but do not quite love. If they made it more substantial – added maybe some amber to the drydown and dialed up the incense – I would probably embrace this scent. Winter Delice is a light-wearing scent made for everyday wear – it won’t overwhelm or dominate, unless you wear a lot around your clove-sensitive relatives. The longevity is fine but the throw rather minimal – I have to sniff the back of my hand by mid-day.

For some reason, this scent makes me think of snowbirds who leave New York in November to celebrate Christmas in Palm Beach, but they bring the reindeer sweaters anyway. It’s Wintertime, set among sunny days and open blue skies.

Year: 2000
Notes: Fir Trees, Scotch Pine, Balsam, Somalian Incense, Sugar, Vanilla

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