Kings Wood

Not in the least bit like Aventus! Just putting that out there (we’re aware that pineapple is a trigger word for some). No, Kings Wood takes the oft-abused pineapple and sets it among aromatic herbs and greenery for a gentlemanly English garden fougère that’s mercifully low on sugar. It’s clean, aromatic, and above all, unpretentious. We love it.

Although the topnote is clearly pineapple, it has a thrilling tartness that leans more on grapefruit and tart greenery than tropical cocktail. Its fougère bone structure really comes into focus once that big, handsome oak note settles in, shoring up all the peppery herbs and fruit with its broad shoulders. Tilted towards the masculine side of the scale, Kings Wood belongs on the confident titan of industry who secretly dreams of being back in his garden, potting plants and hacking back overgrown brambles. The leather accord in the far drydown is a delightful late addition, ruffling the elegant surface of this gentlemanly fougère with a surprisingly skanky note redolent of animal hide and undergrowth. We see Kings Wood working fantastically on a man (or woman) who loves the rustic vigor of herbs, fruit, oak, and good clean dirt but needs it packaged up into an elegant structure for a conservative setting.

pineapple, fern, Sichuan pepper, oak, leather