Red Tobacco

Every so often a niche house releases something that escapes its own audience, and Red Tobacco is Mancera's. Released in 2017, it has accumulated more than ten thousand ratings on Fragrantica, several times what any other Mancera has managed, and it did that almost entirely by word of mouth. The house it comes from opened in Paris during 2008, five years behind Montale and generally traced to the same founder, and the Paris boutique is still shared with its older sibling. Mancera does not credit perfumers by name.

It does not ease you in. The first thirty seconds are cinnamon, and a lot of it, hot and red and almost edible, backed by nutmeg and saffron with a flash of green apple and pear that reads more like spiced fruit than fresh fruit. Incense and a dark oud accord sit behind the spice from the beginning. The heart is brief, patchouli and a whisper of jasmine acting mostly as connective tissue, and then the base takes over and stays for the rest of the day: tobacco that is sweet and pipe-like rather than ashy, Madagascar vanilla, amber, sandalwood and guaiac wood, with vetiver and white musk keeping it from becoming shapeless.

It is a cold-weather, night-time, going-out fragrance, and it is unapologetically about being noticed. On a Highveld winter evening it is superb. In February humidity it becomes a lot of fragrance for the room to absorb.

Performance is the reason people talk about it. Ten to twelve hours of skin life is normal, the first three or four project enormously, and clothing will carry it through several washes. That strength is also the main risk. One spray is a wearing. Two is generous. Three will announce you before you enter the room and will follow you out of it, and there are plenty of contexts, including most offices and any small car, where that is a mistake rather than a feature. Sample before committing to a 120ml bottle, not because the quality is in doubt but because the volume is.