I'm a probably more of a whore for vanilla than any other single note. In fact some of my all time favourite fragrances contain almost nothing else. The thing is I have different vanillas for different moods, situations and purposes. Picking a favourite would be difficult.
Going purely by smell alone Annick Goutal's Vanille Exquise wins by a mile. When I compare it to SDV which costs almost three times as much (for less, to boot: 75mls vs 100mls) AG smells opulent, refined, natural and utterly luxurious; the vanilla has a nutty, buttery quality which is far removed from the sugar-cookie vanillas which seem more popular, while the overall milky smoothness of the fragrance is almost too good to be true. In a direct comparison to other big-shot vanillas I own like SDV it crushes and humiliates the competition, but that's only if we go by the smell. Since, while it's on the cheaper side for vanilla fragrances I consider top-notch (only Eau des Baux costs less) the sillage is very timid and the longevity is typical of many Annick Goutal EDTs. That is to say a calculated attempt to make you buy the body cream and so on to make it worthwhile. Now if you do that the price doesn't seem as good (moreover I find such products compromise the scent as their fragrances are invariably of lower quality) and if you don't you'll be spraying so much that, once again, the seemingly tempting price will be seen for the illusion that it is.
Molinard's pre-reformulation vanille is probably one of the few which covered all bases for me. A straight, non-boozy vanilla with a more nutty character without competing gourmand notes that (used to be) very inexpensive, but with solid sillage and longevity. So of course it was reformulated and the reformulation, while nice, is a boozy-vanilla like so many others.
Edit - just to note I really, really don't like Le Male. I can't really understand why people think of it as a vanilla.
