"Vintage" Tabaróme (1875)
by Creed

I've worn this several times now, and all I really smell is a nice talcum powder.

Perhaps my sample is duff, but given the praise this receives, I don't get it.

11th August, 2011.

"Vintage" Tabarome exemplifies everything that is great about Creed. No marketing scams, no low grade ingredients, no games--this is the genuine article. Tabarome is strong with great longevity and sillage yet still refined, restrained, and gentlemanly. I believe Creed may have reached its high point with Tabarome though it plays host to a number of other timeless classics from yesteryear including Royal Scottish Lavender and Citrus Bigarrade. The leather, tobacco, and peppery aromatic components are superbly integrated and balanced. The tobacco here is not honeyed (i.e. Acqua di Cuba, Tobacco di Toscana, etc) but stark, authoritative, and staunch. The base is a gentle though synthetic cedar of respectable quality that keeps ambiance of the tobacco and leather going long after they have departed. Is this a cigar? Perhaps, but the driest and most regal. I would think of Tabarome as more of a time and place--a high end social club in Victorian London perhaps on the Pall Mall where wealthy industrialists and earls tend to congregate. Do not bother with the newer Tabarome Millesime as it has nothing to do with this beautiful Tabarome except a slight tobacco note in its base.

23rd May, 2011.

This is a masterpiece. Obscured by Creed's pompous, self inflated "credentials" and the general disdain by critics that I do respect (e.g. Turin). This was instantly a fragrance that I liked and. like all truly extraordinary fragrances, it transcended its own smell, infredients, etc. In an abstractly way, this intoxicating fragrance captures a "smell" of very old-school power, pretige and "clubiness" unlike any other. Creed clearly uses exceptional raw materials in its fragrances. For example, Green Irish Tweed is redolent primarily of high grade ambergris. That same ambergiris is foundin other Creed fragraces, such as the sublime Neroli Savuage. I spend less time marvelling over the quality ingredients in Vintage Tabaorme than I do in relishing the effect of the EDP. I'm not sure I'd know tobacco when I smelled it in a fragrance though I love the smell of tobacco itself. Green tea? Who knows what that smells like. Curiously, I smel nothing animalistic in Vintage Tabarome unless you consider the tobacco to be animalistic in its character. I went to Yale and I went to Cornell Law School, and if anything in the fragrance world evokes the aura of the "Eastern Establishment" elite, this amazing fragrance does. It is not without effect on women. My wife "likes" it, but I have noticed that during the uncommon occasions when I feel it is fit to wear (e.g the Atlanta Opera) women are drawn to it, while I don't smell the slightest hint of musk, civet or castoreum. Bottom line, it smells like money. (The new Tabarome nauseates me.)

6th February, 2011.

I tend not to be fond of tobacco or tobacco notes (the one exception being the smell of pipe tobacco), but "Vintage" Tabarome is well done. It may not feel modern, but must it? It feels classy and refined with a better than average drydown for a Creed. Not for me, but certainly a must try for the tobacco lover (if you can find it).

30th December, 2010.

A fabulous classic fragrance and I would give it a huge thumbs up, but it's terribly outdated. Outside of a few perfume connoisseurs, I doubt anybody would wear or buy this. It feels so out of place or time. I'm guessing it's the reason why it's now discontinued. If I smelt this on somebody, I'd think they were just transported by a time machine from the 1890's.

2nd December, 2010. (Last Edited: 25th December, 2010.)

I wore VT for the first time to a black tie event a couple of weeks ago. I have never worn a fragrance that has received so many compliments - from ladies and gentlemen, young and the not so young alike. It didn't smell dated on me considering that I am just in my early 30s and it lasted on me for a good 10 hours before starting to slowly fade away.

8th August, 2010.