Reviews of Grand Amour (1996)
by Annick Goutal

Time to hear from a guy on this one, I suppose. I had high hopes for Grand Amour after reading various reviews and descriptions, but things never did quite work out.

Grand Amour is sultry, dense, and heady from the very opening, yet somehow unsure of whether it wants to be floral at all, or a rich, dark oriental instead. The complex assemblage of notes never manages to settle down and get itself organized, and the heart seems at once bitter, overbearing, and chaotic. This is a heavy, dark accord, but not something I find at all seductive.

A somewhat bitter rose note eventually rises to the top of this stew, but it’s not enough to tame the cacophony that wells up underneath. I have decided that Grand Amour is not something I'm going to enjoy, though I do admit that it has plenty of strength and character.