Bravo
Ramon Monegal (2015)

First wearing of Ramon Monegal Bravo, my first try of this house that I was not aware of until recently, a lovely spicy, woody, resinous, smoky, leathery blend with a very interesting variety of specific notes that give it some color, depth, and intrigue. The note listings seem to vary a lot by source, but in addition to the broad categorization above, I do get bits of sweet and floral notes throughout, though the fragrance largely takes on a darker tone, a bit more cold-weather / evening-leaning, albeit with a good. By my own estimation, the key notes involved are leather, oud, pine, clove, strawberry, with a sprinkling of florals and citruses. It’s something that I could see myself wearing plenty in the cooler weather, a bit of the pine/strawberry of Imaginary Authors Cape Heartache meeting the leathery spiciness of Zaharoff Signature Leather Tabac, probably a little milder in performance than either example, but still a very good performer and high-quality, to me.

Currently the retail pricing for the brand is $245 for 50ml in Neiman Marcus but it’s a little cheaper at Max Aroma and cheaper still at FragranceNet. I’m not sure there’s uniform pricing, and the images of the bottle seem to vary between Neiman Marcus and the other two sources, so the bottle design likely recently underwent some change, but both version look quite nice.

8 out of 10