Sneak Preview: Oud Sultani

Ensar Oud

Well-Known Member
#1
Take the finest sinking-grade oud wood imaginable, send it to India, and you'll make the Sultan real happy. You might just distill the most incredible oud oil in history in the process. But then, what do you do? After distilling Oud Royale, you'd have thought there was little to be wished for in the way of tweaks or improvements. Or... quite a bit!

For our second batch of sinking-grade raw materials, we really outdid ourselves. We took the sickest sinking-grade granules, and instead of steel, we put them in a copper pot. The jungle was not too far off from the first batch, so the scent spectrum was meant to be dead-on in that regard. And it was... only better. Much, much better.

'Oud Sultani', as we called it, is the best oil Ensar Oud has ever distilled. While Oud Royale was just about the most masculine and kingly oud one could ever produce, if we were commissioned to produce an oil of equal stature for a Queen, it would be none other than Oud Sultani.

Take the high-pitched, austere, incense-y notes that steel imparts on the finest raw materials, and instead imbue the oil with a delicate floral aura which can only be gotten from a copper pot.

There's good reason why traditional attars in India are exclusively done in copper pots, and why oud oils are exclusively cooked in steel. But this wasn't going to be your typical oud oil, after all. Just about the absolute best raw materials ever used in oud distillation went into the production of Oud Sultani.

You get to know oud. You know what to expect from a Borneo – the color, the viscosity, the light sweet notes – and you know what a traditional Hindi smells like. And what happens if you skip the soak. You know Papuans, with their green leafy coolness; Cambodians with their sweet fruity glaze. – Above it all, there's a category of oud oil to which none of these labels apply. It's the one extracted from sinking-grade oud wood. Compared to Borneos, Hindis, Cambodis – it just doesn't compare.

This is Perfume. The quintessential heart of that ecstasy that grips your chest when you inhale something of incredible beauty, where everything else is just an approximation or a metaphor. Compared to Oud Sultani, even an oil like Sheikh's Borneo only offers a pale metaphor as to what oud really is, or what it can be.

This is your chance to enter an olfactory time machine and go back in time to experience what real oud is supposed to smell like.
 
#3
'Oud Sultani', as we called it, is the best oil Ensar Oud has ever distilled.
That is a very strong statement coming from someone who produced some venerable LTD oils before and it doesn't sound like a sales hype or at least I'll hold you to it :p. I am a little bit confused though about the origin of the Raw material; when you've said referencing it "Take the finest sinking-grade oud wood imaginable, send it to India" implying that it is coming from a different country. Is it Indian or Borneoan? Secondly I am assuming that it is from Wild Harvested Stock (since it's sinking "meaning old and resin laden") but wanted to make sure. Also Can you tell us a little details about the production such as were there any pre-soaking, what was the yield and how many patches, aging? A floral Indian, if it's Indian that is I think would be a challenge because in my mind I would wonder how those floral note will work with the deep barnyard, fecal notes found in Indian oils; would there be a clash or would it soften them. quite intriguing.
Now when I hear " Just about the absolute best raw materials ever used in oud distillation went into the production of Oud Sultani." I am scared to ask you whether you've thought about the range of the retail prize for Sultani :eek:? Lastly I understand why Attars are made in copper vessels but why stainless steel is the standard for Oud?
 

Ensar Oud

Well-Known Member
#4
Ikhwani wa azizani Taleb wa Hisham! If I could only write Arabic, I'd reply to both of you in fine Kufic script! : )

I am in the process of praying istikhara about when to release.

The problem with setting too high a price as Hisham suggests is that we have two types of customers: users of oud, and people who like to invest in the extinct varieties of wild oud for a profit at a later date. Since we advertise excellent ROI along with fabulous oud, we need to price our oils in a way where the investor segment can benefit by selling it later. If we maxed-out the price now, I'm afraid we'd be lying to people when we tell them they can expect to see a profit by selling our oils in the future... Sorry masstika, I'm afraid you won't be paying as much as you were hoping to... ; )

You can see what our sold out Vintage LTD oils are going for right in the marketplace section of this site. They've sold for more before, and with good reason. If the 'double super' and 'king super' varieties of oud wood are now selling for ten to thirty times the price they were in 2005, I don't understand why some people think it too far fetched for oud oils of those calibres to appreciate in value likewise. Rather, it is something that has already happened, and is a fact of life.

There was a brief pre-soak done just to energize the wood a little. And it was not distilled in Assam. That is Oud Royale the first paragraph refers to. The pots for this wood were specially made in Cambodia and then exported to Kelantan. The wood used in this batch originated just a taaaad Westward of Oud Royale's jungle, though I am not at liberty to name the place just yet. But it's definitely far from Indian! The only way you can get an idea of the scent profile is if you've smelled Oud Royale No 1. No other oil falls in the same scent category. : )

There was only one batch, about 35 tolas yield. Distillation: 2001!
 
#5
For our second batch of sinking-grade raw materials, we really outdid ourselves. We took the sickest sinking-grade granules, and instead of steel, we put them in a copper pot. The jungle was not too far off from the first batch, so the scent spectrum was meant to be dead-on in that regard. And it was... only better. Much, much better.

'Oud Sultani', as we called it, is the best oil Ensar Oud has ever distilled.
There was only one batch, about 35 tolas yield. Distillation: 2001!
Ensar, I thought you contracted your Oud crave in 2004. How did you have Sultani distilled in 2001? I'm thinking you meant 2010
 
#6
I agree no other oud oil falls in the Oud Royale no. 1 scent category...The Filaria wood oil has a certain twang to it that makes it a nose puller par excellence.
 

Ensar Oud

Well-Known Member
#7
Ensar, I thought you contracted your Oud crave in 2004. How did you have Sultani distilled in 2001? I'm thinking you meant 2010
May Allah reward you, Dramatic, for your impeccable husn al-dhann! : ) A better yet question to ask is, how could we have distilled Oud Royale in 1982, when I was still in the cradle? Indeed, 2001 is no typo. Oud distillation is a craft that dates back centuries, and I was by no means the one who invented it. My distillers (the most Quixotic of them) have distilled oils back in the 1980s and 1990s the likes of which none of us will ever even be able to imagine in their depth, beauty and complexity. Oud Royale, Oud Sultani and others remained in their archives for fabulously long stretches of time, untouched, preserved and aged to perfection; a gift of the preordinance of God for all of us.
 
#8
Yes it did occur to me that Sultani may have been procured in a manner similar to Royale 82, however the use of 'we' in the official description of the former versus 'He' (the Sultan) in that of the latter as the agents of action threw me off. Thanks for clarifying Ensar.
 
#10
The smoothest of opening notes! The Oils is thick and spreads with a diminished honeyed sheen as it spreads on the skin. This is a seductive greeting, sweet opening and succulent white pear fruit and light hints of patchouli, peppered in with some white ginseng roots. All taking flight under the wings of a dark purplish Oud. scent emanating like the best of Malaysian/Indonesian king super chips. Sultry would be the right adjective for this Oud and as Ensar said it is definitely not Indian :) it is very similar to the original Oud Royal 1. Because of how smooth it is one might mistakenly think that it overtly feminine because in the dry down it has a resemblance to the finest of an after shave or tonic. ethereal, menthol and fresh. This is truly a gorgeous Oud that is about whispers and intimacy, short projection yet seductive spinning webs around ones mind. It is all about Incense and wood, sweet kinam wood. There is no assertiveness, in your face kind of thing associated with a lot of the Ouds ones encounter especially young ones. This Oud wins one over with softness and tenderness. This oil has stability that I might think because of its age? The notes are condensed together but not elbowing each other but rather lounging together on a Persian carpet and billows. there are no off putting notes no still notes or discord in the opening notes that you have to wait for the dry down. This Oil is a luxurious ride all the way from the beginning till the end of your journey. My personal likability scale, and this is a first for me is a 10!
 
#12
So this is finally for sale on the website. Shocked at the price but not complaining. Just out of range of what I would spend. I would love to try it though.
 
#13
AZsmells, Oud Sultani might be out of the range of the Oud oil we usually buy! ;) I haven't tried it yet, but I'm not surprised at the price, given what it is said to be, and hearing what others have said. Can't wait to buy a bottle!

Ensar, I'm wondering if you can elaborate on what you mean by "sinking-grade granules"? What does this mean exactly?
 

Ensar Oud

Well-Known Member
#14
Ensar, I'm wondering if you can elaborate on what you mean by "sinking-grade granules"? What does this mean exactly?
This means that the raw materials were black, resin-laden granules collected from the very highest calibre sinking oud wood ever harvested in West Malaysia.
 
#15
My dear friend bluemoon of BN wrote a small but rather nice review of sultani. I always enjoyed the writings because it doesn't linger on the typical mentioning of notes and chords but rather goes for creating a visual picture of the mood the scent puts you in. With her permission I am posting it here. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

"Oud Sultani
Think “hips of a belly-dancer”! This oil is so smooth it’s slippery, so soft it swallows you, so light it’s almost translucent. To apply a drop of Sultani is to luxuriate in golden mercury. Just as you get cozy- wrapped in duvet satin or dolphin-kicking through cream- you catch a wicked glint in the dancer’s obsidian eyes- the tanginess of licorice and sassiness of cumin prick your complacency and try to shake you awake. Her skin is dark molasses; her braid a thick pendulum, trance-ing as she sways. I need to know what lies behind the treacle of her smile, and if the myrrh I’m smelling is her perfume, or my conscience…..".
 
#17
Congratulations on your purchase!
Please let the forum know what you think about it when you get it.

It's way out of my price league, but it's fun to read what people think of it.
 
#18
I think Oud Yusuf is unreal, and that's a reasonably priced organic oud.
An oil that reminds me of so many earthly smells, yet is so different, so unearthly that I can't really describe it's scent.
I would probably be over the moon with Sultani!
 
#19
i plan on being honest and just because i paid so much i wont say, i like it, if i dont. i am honest to a fault. masstika's review made my mind up for me to, have to try it.
 
#20
it arrived very late and i had a dinner to go to so i only touched the wand to my cheeks after scraping most of the oil off into the bottle. keep in mind the review is for the first 2 hours as at the party there was so much food and stuff going on to give a good report. i will be appling a full swipe today and make thurough notes. heres what i wrote down yesterday: first impression from the wand was it smells closest to crassna cha minus the mintyness. after scrapping most oil from wand i appied a smear to each cheek and rubbed it a bit in my beard hair and skin. after 15 minutes it smells like kalbar koh but not as wet, my mind was racing with the knowledge i could get an oud sultani copy from kablar koh. that was a shortlived thought because it just kept evolving. its not strong at all but pleasant and light fresh etheral with no green notes i did get a wiff of pachouli. i can tell it is special and i will like it the more i smell it. it deff an addicting scent but not strong at all. it did have a strong patchouli phase but it passed in about an hour.

upon awakening i could still smell the oud, not strong but still there even after wiping my face on my pillow all night,lol.

so i will write up a better more thurough report today. am i happy i bought it? yes. would i buy it again? time will tell. as a perfumer you have to smell things that are reported to be the best and this is the cleanest smelling oil ive ever tried. you could pour it on and go into a public place with zero worries of offending anyone, its delicous.

next day:

after wearing on my arms for a few hours theres a difference. i havent got the patchouli scent at all where as when on my beard hair after 1 hr there was a small trace that increased, then changed to the hard to describe but, very lovely scent. i get sweet cola fruity basalmic scent thats very hard to describe. its very unique and hard to pindown specific scents, wich i love cause of perfuming and accords.

i dont get a strong fem or male trait but, i would love to have a woman that smelled like this, i wouldnt be able to stop smelling her. its the most addicting oil in my collection! on my skin its more dry floral and sweet. its hands down the best oil i own with its constant evolving. my only regret is it doesnt project very far and, stays close to the wearer. with a scent this lovely it needs to be smelled by everyone. it is a 10 out of 10 and im not saying that because others have or, the price paid, its just and incredible oil. i could go on but im sure you all get the picture, it really is perfume. im very happy with my treasure and would buy tolas of it if it were 550 like the others.

ensar is very generous with his samples and even sent me a sample of an oil ive never seen listed at his store. im not sure if it was a mistake or not so, i wont say what it is until i talk to ensar.

adam, i love the picture you painted. thats deff the dream with anything i buy,lol.

help, i cant get my nose off my arm!