Before the perfume, there was a year 2016. In Merauke, in the far southeast of Papua, an oud was distilled, and almost none of it exists. This batch will not be repeated.

The oud keeps 2016. The perfume keeps its own clock. It's Aging Since September 2024.

Lift the cap and the citrus arrives like a blade held up to light. Bergamot, black pepper, cardamom, all edge and rinse. Lemon flickers, gone before you can name it. Then it stops being polite. Something dense rises slowly beneath it, and the brightness must share the room.

Both roses lose their gardens here. Taif and Bulgarian turn cool and chalky, closer to a stone wall in shade than a bouquet. Jasmine sambac burns low, without sweetness. Turkish black tea dries the air to the grain of an old table, saffron stains it with warm metal, and our own mushroom absolute opens the damp underside of everything, the part of a forest no one photographs. Spikenard follows, bitter as a root pulled from cold ground.

The oud does not arrive. You realise it was already speaking. Merauke oud is smoky and sour-sweet, bark-damp at first, then dry as embers. It is the centre of everything, and it is small. It occupies the air the way a heavy wooden door occupies a doorway. Mysore sandalwood steadies it, Haitian vetiver anchors it, and myrrh hushes it into a room where something was once burned for a reason.

Underneath, civet and hyraeceum breathe. They are warm, mineral and unashamed, and they turn the oud from an ingredient into a presence sitting beside you.

Some materials are chosen. This one was waited for. Merauke is not a name many noses know, and that is the point: a singular oud, with a character that no other origin can lend. Distilled in a single year, then composed with patience into something that can be worn.

Hours later, after the citrus has gone, what remains on skin is smoke, warmth and the faint salt of something alive. Not an idea of 2016. A particular moment, still breathing.

Available in 40 ML

Merauke Oud 2016 - $ 400