Basenotes: Montale demonstrates that when amber ouds mean business, they don’t whack you in the face, they just cuddle you mercilessly. A first-rank offering in the house’s usual brassy style, Wood on Fire delivers on many counts: 1) a delicious smoky aspect to justify the ‘on fire’ part of its name but without inducing a coughing fit; 2) a beautiful glug of smooth vanilla leading the warm and glowing amber accord; 3) a straightforward woodsy oud – no cheese, no tannery leather, no band-aid; and 4) a nice ring of freshness at the edges to keep the composition perky. So, rich, heavy, even gluttonous, but nimble of foot nonetheless. It calls you ‘habibi’ in its most charming Middle Eastern manner, but therein may also be its downfall – it’s perhaps playing with too many familiar, nay mainstream, elements to satisfy the connoisseurs. No matter, works for me, and gets gruffer rather than cuter in the deep drydown, which is just the way I like it.
