Racine (1988)
by Maître Parfumeur et Gantier

a refreshing blend of citrus and (cooled)vetiver done in a very "Penhaligons" style. of the MPG stable i would say its made in the same vain as Fraiche Badine. delightfully summery frag this is with lots of quality and the staple MPG touch. hard to miss and you would definitely smell different than the rest. a must have. however, it doesnt warrant to have both Fraiche Badine and This in the same wardrobe unless you like to collect MPG's.

Good citrus and vetiver. My favorite so far from MPG but not really outstanding but thumbs up nonetheless. So far the only one that isn't abrasively 'green' with their house note.

Like the playwright after which it is named (unless, of course, it's named after the city in Wisconsin), Racine strikes a balance between neo-classicism and demonic energy. Literary critic and scholar George Steiner writes, "The art of Racine is that of calculated tension. All manner of images spring to mind: the tension between the inherent repose of marble and the swiftness of depicted motion in Greek sculpture, the flying buttress, the in-pent power of a steel spring [...] A controlling poise is maintained between the cool severity of the technique and the passionate drive of the material."

He was writing about the playwright, of course, but these lines, by happy coincidence, apply to the perfume as well: this is a straightforward and classical composition of citrus and vetiver, but the citrus is brightly hesperidic while the vetiver is untamed and raw. The two battle it out for dominance with, to my nose, no clear winner except in the last gasps of the dry down, when the earth triumphs over its sun-kissed fruits.

A wonderful fragrance to which I often turn when I'm having trouble deciding and want something that I absolutely KNOW smells good. Its only weakness is mediocre longevity.

EDIT: "Racine" also means "root" in French. I prefer to believe that the fragrance was named after the playwright, so I will conveniently ignore this possible fact to the contrary.

I too appreciate this vetiver more than Guerlain's or Creed's. The splendid, dry balance between the citrus and vetiver is, as others have stated, the strong and very appealing focal point of Racine. I also agree that other vetiver-dominant, MPG frags are more dimensional like Centaure, Parfum d'Habit and of course Route de Vetiver. None of these are as dry as Racine though. 7/10

This review is under revision.

Very old fashioned but straightforward take on citrus and vetiver, and (blessedly) free of that MPG "green" house note that so dominates and often ruins many other MPG frags for me.

Very clean, very pure, very unisex, very refreshing.

Not a frag I'll be pining for, no, but one I'll gladly enjoy when I encounter it.