Ghalia Gris: Kelantan – Running Low

I probably shouldn’t tell you that Kelantan 1997 exists. 

Because, if you’re like me – once you know, it becomes difficult to think about anything else.

And I should probably also not tell you that there’s a full bottle of it inside this bottle.

And that this perfume is to Jamaican Ambergris what White Kinam is to Black Kinam. I get a feeling you can already smell it…

Take Jamaican Ambergris’ oceanic-sandy grey amber, the sweet oaky tang of jambu, its jasmine sambac, Georgian rose and plumeria, that tropical vanilla glow – and drench the whole fragrance into aged sinking-grade agarwood.

Kelantan 1997 lets the Jamaican gris overflow with sappy Malaysian oud resin that works like a dream with the tropical-oceanic beauty of Jamaican Ambergris. Its old-world gaharu, floral-herbaceous profile exalts the ambergris facets with a dense oudy core, while the flowers, jambu, vanilla and balsams keep folding back through it until oud and ambergris become increasingly difficult to pull apart.

Kelantan 1997 predates even the legendary Kelantan distillation, Oud Ahmad 2001. Not only is it on par with Oud Ahmad in terms of the quality of the raw materials, the fact that it’s been aging for almost thirty years should tell you something about its olfactory depth.

I could have used the likes of Olde Hoi An or Sultani: Sekadau, but the signature floral-resin heart that defines the highest-grade West Malaysian ouds makes Kelantan 1997 the oud for this composition.

With a full three grams of it, we’re not talking about a subtle whiff during the drydown. So much of such a domineering oud changes the entire unfolding of the perfume, and no note goes unaffected.

From what happens when centennial nuggets of red resin of this caliber meet the salty-sandy funk of old grey ambergris, to the way jasmine sambac and plumeria bleed into its floral resin, to the sweet oaky tang of jambu, Bourbon vanilla and massoia getting caught between the two.

If Jamaican Ambergris is a soliflore, Ghalia Gris is proper baklava.

Layer upon layer of oud and ambergris fold in on themselves – grey amber over Kelantan, Kelantan back through ambergris; jasmine, jambu and plumeria caught between the sheets; Mysore, balsams and vanilla soaking into the whole thing until you stop trying to work out which ingredient is doing what.

The result is Jamaican Ambergris gone ghalia.

If you’ve smelled the great ghalias, you know they’re not simple compositions, not smell-it-once-and-you-know-what-it’s-about fragrances. Their richness comes from the interweaving – ingredients of enormous character not politely taking turns, but bleeding into and exalting one another.

That’s what the mighty Kelantan 1997 does here.

You can buy K-97 neat here.

Handmade full-grain leather pouch. Stone cap. 

Very limited.