Montblanc Legend

Montblanc has been making writing instruments since 1906, and its name and its emblem both point at the same mountain. Fragrance is a licensed extension of that, and Legend, launched in 2011, is the release that made it a serious player in men's perfumery rather than a gift-counter afterthought. Olivier Pescheux is commonly named as its author, though Montblanc credits nobody on its own pages, where the description is kept short and names bergamot, oakmoss, cedar, pomarose, sandalwood and tonka bean. The pyramid as it was published at launch and is still widely reproduced is more detailed: lavender, pineapple, bergamot and lemon verbena at the top; red apple, dried fruits, oakmoss, geranium, coumarin and rose in the heart; tonka bean and sandalwood at the base. Pomarose is the material worth knowing about, a modern captive with a dried-fruit, rosy, slightly leathery character, and it is doing much of the work in the middle. Legend is a fougere that had its sharp corners sanded off deliberately. The opening is fresh and slightly fruity, apple and pineapple more suggested than literal, with lavender giving it the traditional barbershop backbone. The heart is where it becomes recognisable: a soft, dried-fruit warmth wrapped in coumarin, which is the hay-and-almond material that gives fougeres their comforting quality. The base is clean tonka and mild sandalwood. Nothing in it is difficult, nothing is challenging, and that is the design brief rather than a failing. The result is one of the most reliably wearable men's fragrances on the market. It is an office scent, an interview scent, a meet-the-parents scent. On the Highveld in autumn it sits perfectly, warm enough for cool mornings without becoming heavy by mid-afternoon. It is inoffensive in the useful sense of the word, which also means it is not distinctive. Performance is solid: six to eight hours, projecting well while the opening lasts, then soft and close. It has been extremely widely sold since 2011, so expect to smell it on other people. Two things to check before buying. The Legend name now spans a large family of separate fragrances, including quite different fresh and darker versions, so read the exact name on the box. And a fragrance this old and this widely produced has inevitably been adjusted over fourteen years; longtime wearers report current bottles as slightly lighter than early ones.