Green Valley by Creed, 1999

I'm very excited about this one, because I view it as the Creed that out-Creeds their star player, Green Irish Tweed, in spite of (or thanks to?) their similarities. I think that they've captured some of the points I liked about my long lost Gendarme Green, and combined them favorably with GIT. The opening is a crisp, sharp, sweet blue-green, which turns very astringent very quickly with a short-lived lemon and a longer-lived spearmint. This all sounds very familiar I'm sure, but GV is dustier and grassier than GIT is at this stage. The mint and herbs give it a more mountain-meadow vibe, whereas GIT is down on the plains where it's warmer but the AC is on via the cooling influence of the violet. GV even brings in just a trace of those strong, pithy herbs that seemed so over the top in Chevrefeuille Original. All this time it's been a bit shifty and uncertain, but once it finally settles down, the base is one of the cleanest, brightest, truest grass scents I've encountered. It has less fruit and more sunshine than Greenergy or Bobby Jones, and not as much violet as GIT, as if sweet herbs from Burberry original or D+G original had been introduced. The biggest advantage GV has over GIT, though, is its strength and longevity. I can smell the full grass experience pretty strongly after many hours, under circumstances where GIT would have faded to a mere violet memory. Being forever in the shadow of GIT, GV doesn't get talked about as much, but is very worthwhile to seek out as a substitute or on its own.

It's a shame they're phasing this one out. I just got a bottle from 2006 from the Creed Boutique, one of a precious few they dispensed for this spring season. Since I live in a middle-class valley, I figured Green Valley would be the most fitting Creed for a valley guy to wear. It certainly is a pleasant little fragrance. It also smells like Creed's "middle class" Millesime, if such a thing were to exist. There's something very casual and laid back about it. I can't help but get a not-so-veiled allusion to Irish Spring soap from the box, with its white and green speckles, and indeed the scent does match the classic Irish Spring soap (the version predating the '90s). Colgate called Irish Spring's scent "Ulster", and it's a strange concept: green vanilla. With Green Valley, I get just that - an airy citrus with blackcurrant, a wall of bitter herbs and uncut mint, all strewn across a base of nutty vanilla. It's really an interesting scent. A five year-old bottle isn't old enough to suffer the ravages of time, and I have a much older bottle that smells like blackcurrant over an old shoe, but I can see why Creed discontinued this formula. It smells like it took a lot of work to make, and the ends didn't justify the means. There's something a little uneven in the blending that makes Green Valley a second-tier Creed, although I should note that it was a product of a time when the company devoted more time to its infusion technique. I'll enjoy wearing this smooth green scent, and I agree that it conjures images of golf and sipping highballs on the club terrace. But when my bottle's up, I doubt I'll be rueful of Green Valley's commercial demise.