Oud Dhul Q Organic Oud
Ensar Oud

Oud Dhul Q is a distillation of organic, plantation-grown Thai oud wood and a batch of incense-grade Cambodi wood. In other words, a mixture of farmed and wild wood. It is very much related to Aroha Kyaku but far smokier, woodier, and darker in tone. It is also one of the most enjoyable Ensar ouds I have had the pleasure of trying, and the one I can realistically imagine owning myself one day. (Of course, it will probably have been sold out by the time I get around to buying it.)

Up top, there is a long, drawn-out smoke note, fused with aged oud wood, tobacco, and the bright saltiness of ambergris. But there is also a labdanum-style thickness and sweetness behind the opening. This smells like burned toffee mixed with liquid tar and leather. The smoke and tobacco place Oud Dhul Q in the same general arena as Aroha Kyaku, but smelled side by side, clear differences emerge. Oud Dhul Q leans towards the saline side of the flavor wheel, while Aroha Kyaku’s cherry leather makes it both sweeter and brighter. Yet, in Dhul Q, there is clearly something thick and syrupy at play behind the opening bouquet of smoke. This syrupy density is as salty-bitter as molasses, chestnut honey, or even labdanum itself.

There are no cherries or fruit in the heart, just a buttery leather smeared with tar and honey as seen through the fiery blaze of campfire smoke. The Heathcliff of pure oud oils, Dhul Q is a smoky, saturnine beauty that demonstrates that oud oil can be as complex and as ‘perfumey’ as a Chanel extrait. Its haunting umami quality makes me think of kinam wood kept in Japanese vaults, an image that persists in jumping to mind even though I have never been within five hundred kilometers of either Japan or a piece of kinam agarwood.