Douro Eau de Portugal / Lords (1985)
by Penhaligon's

Opening is a nice citrus blast. There is something wrong in the base though. Kind of wretchedly soapy too. All in all, i was disappointed.

30th January, 2012.

For me, Douro opens with a spectacularly realistic invoaction of lemon candy. This lemon candy is balanced with an aromatic spine that cuts the sweetness and gives the candy an airy, cool, refreshing (eucalyptus or mentholated, not minty) counterpoint that smells very natural. If this opening were a real candy, I would eat it by the crate.

This accord of lemon and airy aromatics persist throughout the wearing, but get filtered through the heart and base notes.

As others have noted, the heart is floral. That said, this floral heart is a complement to the top accord, and develops in a rather linear fashion. At its best, I get an amazing heart of sweet, spicy, floral honey that is deep and complex, but unfortunately rather fleeting. While it lasts, this is an intoxicating scent.

When that fades, I am left with a sweet lemon drydown with only hints of the aromatics.

Douro is masterfully blended - it's notes are SO realistic, never clash, and are balanced so perfectly in the top and heart. That said, its longevity is average at best and sillage is quite low. Ultimately, I don't often want to smell like lemon candy, fine as it is. These two factors almost resulted in a neutral rating.

I would prefer this as a shower gel, scented candle, or home fragrance. I think many women could wear and enjoy this very much.

20th January, 2012.

I probably should have done a side-by-side with Tiffany, Chanel PM, and PMC, based on forum comments. Initially very promising, it opens with a pleasant (non-acidic, non-fizzy) lemon over anisy barbershop-type spices, a top that I'd expect to herald a good wood scent farther along. It seems to get a bit weaker after the first few minutes and the lemon gets duller, sweeter and more powdery, like a lemon analog of the orange in Habit Rouge. It develops just the slightest bit of "wild/english fern" type herbal green in the mid notes, and initially remains more spice-oriented than that group, until the spices recede more and the ferny-ness becomes more apparent. In the end, I feel like I'm left with a sweet spice/wood scent that would be really great if not for the intrusion of powdery, anisy and ferny notes which I would prefer not to have. Their Opus 1870, while built around a different selection of wood notes (more cedar), feels more uncontaminated to me because they've chosen ancillary notes that don't bother me as much: sharper spices and maybe a little fruit.

26th September, 2011.

Having created Blenheim Bouquet, perhaps the finest citrus and pine cologne known to the perfumier's art, the House of Penhaligon always has an uphill struggle to match it with any other of its citrus creations. And so it is with Lords [Douro]. In spite of the obvious quality of its ingredients, it strikes my nose as one-dimensional and harsh, somehow combined with a dusty, fusty Englishness.

1st August, 2011.

Wonderful. This one lords up the others of the same brand in my taste cause is marvellously classy and stiff but in a more modern and wearable way. It starts with a blast of citruses, lavender and airy basil but the top is not so severe as in Blenheim Bouquet despite always standing inside the dry territories. The heart is floral with its demure muguet and the neroli flower. The last one, joining itself with the mandarine set in the top, impresses to scent a more pleasant sweet touch and a less bitter citrusy temperament while in BB the vacancy of flowers and of the orange-mandarine tandem was too much sour and conservative. The base is heaven with its mossy, creamy sandalwood, so soapy due to the support of labdanum. Overall the fragrance, while slightly sweet and daring, effortlesly still upholds its composure. Pure modern but traditional distinction.

28th January, 2011. (Last Edited: 14th March, 2011.)

Oh, WOW! I just got some of the vintage of this stuff, and I am bowled over. I am not typically able to write concise reviews, but...
This scent combines the Latinate, full-bodied Majesty of Czech and Speake's Cuba with the simple, citric good-breeding of YSL's original PH. And it's just divine, in an all-man, lavender-soapy, yet-stately way.

17th June, 2010.