Baie de Genièvre
Creed (1982)

Baie de Genievre was released in 1982. The fragrance is a spicy aromatic scent. I bought BdG when it was still in production. I was trying to decide which Creed to buy, but I couldn’t decide so the sales associate recommended BdG. She said it was about to be vaulted, but a few bottles were in stock. I sampled it and was blown away by how much I liked its bright and spicy opening. Unfortunately, my bottle was defective and the atomizer leaked all over my hand. After that, I needed a break so I forgot about it for years. Recently, I decided to give it a wear. The magic returned and it’s back in my rotation.

I really enjoy the vibrant bergamot and cinnamon leaf opening, but it’s the juniper berries heart note that makes it unique to my taste. I get a hint of gin as the cinnamon, cloves and juniper berries merge. The base is vetiver and the trademark Creed ambergris. I do get a barbershop vibe in this fragrance.

Baie de Genievre is a mature but not dated scent. It leans formal and is great except on the warmest days. Longevity and sillage are good. This is my favorite Creed fragrance. It is signature scent worthy, though a unicorn. Highly recommended.

I get more of a juniper tree than berries. Somewhat pine-like, with mild sweetness, and fall spices of cinnamon and clove. There's a woody freshness underneath that comes across as clean and almost soapy, bringing to mind a barbershop association. It's an interesting juxtaposition of warm and fresh notes. A bit less tenacious than I'd like, but this is certainly one of the better EDT releases from the brand.

Creed Baie de Genièvre (1982) is a vaulted Creed that has a lot of fans in the vintage side of the online fragrance community, but isn't worshiped or placed upon a pedestal like some vaulted Creeds are. Some of this may have to do with the somewhat pedestrian nature of its barbershop-friendly construction, which also puts it directly in line with lovers of old aromatic fougère fragrances with which this also shares many qualities. The full name of this scent is actually "Baie de Genièvre Feuilles de Canneliers" which literally means "juniper berries and cinnamon leaves", so you know right away what you're in store for with this one. The best way perhaps to describe Baie de Genièvre is as a gussied up Worth pour Homme (1980) with touches of Quorum by Antonio Puig (1982), which themselves are pretty much a fancied-up takes on what Paco Rabanne pour Homme (1973) laid down and a juniper/artemisia-heavy tobacco chypre. Baie de Genièvre is not an exact copy of anything, and doesn't smell like an upmarket redress of a specific fragrance like many of the old gray caps did, just Creed's take on a popular genre development of the day that focuses on star ingredients in that niche sort of way. Of the few vaulted grey caps I've had the privilege to sample, this one is among the best, and Baie de Genièvre is one of the few I'd endeavor to own if I ever won the lottery and money was no object to me. Sadly, I don't ever see this being brought back either, due to IFRA restrictions and what have you.

As the token Creed aromatic (almost) fougère, Baie de Genièvre starts up with the main attraction: juniper. Creed claims they allow the berries to ripen for two to three years, which almost sounds credible, but no species of juniper that has its berries harvested tends to have berries mature longer than 24 months, so make of that what you will. The juniper is met with some dry bergamot, artemisia, and a bit of lavender that all come into the heart with cinnamon and a sharp soapiness of orris much like the aforementioned fragrances of Worth or Roger & Gallet L'Homme (1982). A woody vetiver and cedar with oakmoss takes the juniper into an appropriately coniferous direction, while the salty breathy musky warmth of ambergris replaces any detectable tonka note that would otherwise make this an actual fougère fragrance. The natural aromatic spicy green simplicity of the juniper and cinnamon carries all the way into the dry down, making Baie de Genièvre feel like a proper 80's powerhouse, perhaps the closest thing to a Creed proxy for Chanel Antaeus (1981) in intent if not exactly in smell. I don't quite see this as smelling like proper gin as some others have commented, but I see a link to Quorum that nobody else really seems to mention at all. Wear time is 10 hours plus with solid performance too, and this is probably year-round signature worthy as it balances freshness and pungency, but to me feels too formal for daily use. There's also the bit about price and not being replaceable that would keep most people still owning some from using this more than on special occasions or to wax nostalgic.

As a vaulted Creed, Baie de Genièvre naturally fetches insane amounts of money in the aftermarket, and is one of the few vaulted Creeds that if you had been a fan of the house since the beginning, would understandably become mad at them doing away with, plus comparing something like this to Aventus (2010) is almost hysterically comical. Smelling Creeds like Baie de Genièvre, Acier Aluminium (1973), or Sélection Verte (1970), then jumping ahead to Virgin Island Water (2007) or Royal Oud (2011) would almost feel like smelling fragrances from two different, wholly unrelated brands, such is the difference in quality and style between where Creed was as a brand back before Green Irish Tweed (1985) broke them into the spotlight and where they are now as one of the top-dogs in the luxury face culture segment of the perfume market. It's with a righteous anger that old Creed adopters shake their fist at the brand which has taken to making expensive freshie after expensive freshie in place of any real creative diversity, to capture those trust fund kiddo and oligarch spawn dollars rather than continue to support the original market they cultivated throughout the 70's, 80's, and part of the 90's, with memories of Baie de Genièvre being an example of why they have that anger. As for me, I can wear about a dozen different things to get in the same ballpark, and came into smelling Baie de Genièvre long after having already acquired its potential alternatives, so I'm not distressed much by its absence from the Creed canon. I do understand the love, though. Thumbs up

Wonderful blend of spice, accept my skin pulls too much clove. Masterly blended, good longevity for a Creed, and decent silage, again, for a Creed.

I only wish the clove would calm down, but YMMV.

8/10

I have several vaulted Creeds and this one is a favorite.

I love a cinnamon note and this has a great one.

To me it wears like a regal version of Old Spice. Not that it smells like Old Spice per se, but has the same sort of personality. Was Creed trying to chanel Old Spice when they created this? I don't know but maybe.

Not the usual "barbershop" vibe but kind of just had a haircut scent.

A shame it's been vaulted but I can see where some of the modern trends left this one in the dust. No one under 35 could probably deal with this.

But it is a nice wear. Several hours of spicey, manly goodness.

Very nice showcase of juniper berry, which some may consider dated (it came out in 1982).

Creed's Baie de Genièvre feels like a gin martini right from the start! Peppery, spicy from cloves and dusty sweet cinnamon, and helped along by mossy dry green vetiver...and touched by a tasteful dose of Creed's ambergris to warm things up.

Rich, deep, well-made and with a retro feel that echoes its original era. As a 40-something man, I can appreciate Baie de Genièvre's masculine, mature, fresh quality construction with few parallels to today's typical pop fragrances.