Yvresse / Champagne by Yves Saint Laurent, 1993

More like Sauternes than Champagne, but I dont want to start another trademark issue for this fragrance. Yes, this has similarities to wine, but it seems much more like a sweet dessert wine than anything else. And, yes, there is a chypre base to Yvresse, but overall the fragrance is much more about fruitiness and sweet florals. A well-made sweet wine is one where all the fruit/honey/sweetness is balanced by a proper degree of acidity, though the acidity is a small element when compared to the sugar. The point is largely lost on me with dessert wines and I guess here as well. I get all the other comparisons---Chinatown but without the full dose of the chypre base; Femme, but with less cumin and more honey. But the real point of comparison to me is another Grosman work, Prescriptives Calyx. Calyx has all the fruit, all the rose, but a bit less sugar and more moss. Granted, a different flavor (guava v peach) makes for a qualitative difference, but compositionally, theres much to compare. Calyxs success is taking the fruitiest of fruit scents, one that you can almost taste (ripe guava) and balancing it with enough moss and dry rose to compensate for the sweetness, leaving a heady aroma with a spectacularly balanced drydown. Yvresse uses sweeter fruit, adds honey-like amber, uses a sweeter rose, and less moss. Yvresse does lose some of the sweetness as it ages, but what is left without the sweetness? It gets threadbare. I applaud YSL for making a sensible-shoes version of the 1990s fruity floral, but Im picky about my fruity chypres, and this one I dont quite love. Seen as a fruity floral, and compared to the raft of sticky sweetness that was selling like mad at the time, it is a smart choice. But as a fruity chypre, it cant hold its own against Diorella, Cristalle, Chinatown or its YSL sibling, Y. I can see why fruity chypres might have been seen as fertile ground to create more accessible (read: better selling) fruity-florals at the time, but its the balance thats lost. Remember: this was the year Cristalle EDP was released. Cristalle, but sweeter, less sharp and nicer. God god, who wants that?

If someone had told me prior to testing Yvresse that it is possible for a fragrance to smell fizzy, to give one a feeling of small bubbles tickling the nostrils, I probably would have laughed. How this fragrance has managed to encapsulate every quality of a glass of sparkling white wine is beyond me. Yvresse opens very tart, fruity, strong and yes, fizzy. Whether you like the scent or not, the olfactory experience you witness is unlike anything you'll ever come across. Just like a glass of champagne, Yvresse entertains us with sophistication and intoxicating appeal. The incredibly unique blend of notes throughout makes this fragrance truly unforgettable. One of a kind. The apricot, nectarine and peach do come on rather strongly at first and in some ways the result could be described as sharp. It is actually this quality however that I enjoy. There is only a touch of sweetness in this fragrance, which is mostly caused by the coconut, cinnamon, litchi and vanilla. This sweetness is not unpleasant, just a little odd at first. Something that your nose will need time to adjust to. There is no doubt in my mind that this fragrance has been aptly named. Champagne is exactly what it smells like. I love that the later name has been derived from the word 'Ivresse' meaning intoxication.

Reading through these reviews, with a particular reference to Vibert's, I have to wonder not IF this perfume has been reformulated but just how much it's been reformulated over the years. Some reviews very much vibe with what I'm smelling, and others are describing a very different fragrance. Concerning the original perfume in the bottles labeled 'Champagne', and specifically the parfum concentration, the composition in unquestionably a chypre and has little if anything to do with the sappy fruity florals that Vibert aptly describes.

It's taken me almost a year of owning Champagne parfum to get my head around it, but recently everything clicked. On application I've always felt that this was YSL's version of Diorella or Cristalle. A fruity chypre for sure, but with a "funk" (which is the lurking cumin, though it's not distinctly cumin-smelling) that very much made it appropriate for being a YSL fragrance, as though they the brief read "we want a raunchy Diorella to fit our darkly sexy marketing image." While other reviewers are commenting on an effervescent, bubbly peach my parfum is hardly this way. Rather I smell a very overripe peach/apricot backed by florals and pushed by cumin to form an accord that is discordant, but discordant such that I want to keep my wrist to my nose to see how this conflict will resolve itself. The drydown is markedly less eventful, but it is enjoyable. The apricot/peach note never fully recedes, but it takes a backseat to a vetiver-spiked classic chypre drydown that features a good dose of oakmoss. I find the heart to be the most enjoyable stage of Champagne - the fruity topnotes are balanced with a melange of florals, the oakmoss/patchouli begins to appear and the underlying vetiver is at its most prominent - but there isn't any point of development I don't like.

Just the tiniest dab is all that's needed to make my arm reek of Champagne strongly for hours - this is potent stuff for sure. I've been enjoying the vintage parfum so much that I found myself an original 'Champagne' labeled EdT, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it differs from the parfum. I'm not so sure that trying Yvresse as it exists now sounds appealing, especially given the comments that it's a very sweet fruity floral, something that Champagne is not. If you're a fan of fruity chypres it's well worth seeking out an original 'Champagne' branded bottle. Thumbs UP!