The scent The artist This is a 2 ml spray sample. Find the full bottle here. Red sumac? What is this? An ingredient often found in Lebanese and Middle Eastern cooking, we were excited to see this here because it is rarely used in perfumery and we couldn’t help but be intrigued by it. So, what does it smell like? Imagine a lemon that has been slightly sweetened so that it is not so tart or pungent. In perfumery, red sumac can help to balance other citrus notes and here we find that it accentuates the woody spices of cumin and tobacco. The opening here is citrus and sumac forward, a tad bit of cumin flows into a toned-down oud mingled with an orange blossom. The tobacco here sits differently than others too. It’s dry, leafy, grassy and earthy; a pre-burned tobacco. And the incense is pleasantly mild. To add to the uniqueness of this fragrance, a grapey essence comes through slightly from the berry nuances of the sumac, which after all is a berry that smells like a sweetened lemon. Notes include red sumac, citruses, cumin, orange blossom, incense, tobacco, tonka bean and agarwood (oud). Montale is the creation of Pierre Montale, who worked as an official perfumer for the Saudi royal family before returning to Paris to introduce Western perfume lovers to the rich world of Middle Eastern perfumery ingredients.
