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A Millesime is.....?

post #1 of 7
6/21/12 at 3:04pm
Thread Starter 
What exactly is a Millesime? One source says its a denotation of strength, the strongest. As in more concentrated and stronger than an eu de toillette. Then another source suggested it bespoke of the purity of the ingredients used. Which is it? And why does Creed offer some of its fragrances in Millesime ad some in others.? One more. Is Spice And Wood offered as a Millesime by Creed? I love this scent although I seem to be in the minority and my only complaint is that it doesn't alst long enough. Thanks
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post #2 of 7
6/21/12 at 5:11pm
The word itself is French, but I believe you are asking about Creed's use of Millesime in their fragrance titles. My understanding is that the ambergris-dominated base common to many of Creed's fragrances is their requisite to tack "Millesime" to the name. If you are familiar with a variety of Creeds, you'll notice a similar dry down to all of the "Millesime" fragrances.

Spice and Wood does not have this base, thus its name does not include "Millesime". This isn't a good or a bad thing, it is just a different fragrance.

To answer your Spice and Wood question expressly, there is not a different "Millesime" concentration because the word "Millesime" is not an issue of concentration.
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post #3 of 7
6/21/12 at 5:22pm
I think it denotes of the highest quality with the best of ingredients but could be wrong.
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post #4 of 7
6/21/12 at 6:04pm
Millesime is a French vintner's term and it just means "vintage year." I would translate it in English as "special vintage" which is more or less how Creed seems to be using it. It is not a term in perfumery outside Creed's rather eccentric usage.
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post #5 of 7
6/21/12 at 11:20pm
...the usual marketing crap Creed is most famous for (except - lately - on basenotes, where people actually believe in the quality of their scents).

On a more objective side-note I'd like to give you a link by a blog entry from JaimeB who dealt with the term some years ago:

http://www.basenotes.net/entries/91-...3%A9simes-quot
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post #6 of 7
6/22/12 at 9:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BurgundyMarsh View Post

Millesime is a French vintner's term and it just means "vintage year." I would translate it in English as "special vintage" which is more or less how Creed seems to be using it. It is not a term in perfumery outside Creed's rather eccentric usage.

This is correct. I have a bottle of champagne with the word millesime on its label in the fridge.
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post #7 of 7
6/23/12 at 12:17am
"The word 'millesime', of course, appears on many CREED fragrance bottles, such as Royal Water, Tabarome or Imperial Millesime. The 'millesime' designation means that the best crops from a particular yearÂs harvest  be it bergamot from Sicily or lemon from Calabria  were used in the creation of that particular bottle of CREED fragrance. It is a mark of quality." http://blog.creedboutique.com/tags/creed-millesime/

I tend to agree with Candide that it is a marketing tool, puffing if you will.

- - - Updated - - -

We now have solved the mystery for the myriad discussions about Creed's varying batches.

Jaime B's Blog


Creed: Why "millésimes"?




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by JaimeB


, 27th February 2008 at 06:08 PM (3207 Views)



After reading the thread about how to pronounce the word "millésime" in French, I wrote a reply in which I mentioned that the word refers to a date, as on a monument or a coin.

Well, I began to think about this... Why would Creed use this term to name a perfume? So I did a little investigating. I've been looking at a book by Annick le Guérer, Le Parfum: des origines Ã* nos jours (Odile Jacob: Paris, 2005, ISBN 2-7381-1670-1) and I decided to look up Creed in the chapter on niche houses. There (p. 281), she mentions the following:

"In order to take into account the variations in aroma of natural products whose characteristics are not identical from one year to the other, the House of Creed offers an innovation. As on the bottles of great wines, the year is inscribed on the flasks of its Millésimes  eaux de parfum composed of very rare and very costly essences  taken from two thousand specimens. 'A synthetic rose that you bought in 1990 or 1995 is the same, but a natural rose... well, that one changes... and then someone says to me, "But your perfume has changed!" One indicates the year so that the clients will not be surprised at these changes.' " (Translation mine).

So the "millésime" is the date on the flask that indicates the year of purchase of the key natural ingredients that went into the fragrance. Your 1995 rose may be greener, flatter, or spicier than 1990's rose crop was; therefore, you shouldn't be surprised that they don't smell the same. Creed is accounting for the yearly variation in natural products that it uses in its scents. I guess, like a wine connoisseur, you have to know that the grenache grapes in year X were fruitier than in year Y, and if you prefer fruitier grenaches, then you'd better buy the year X vintage bottles. If you live in Grasse, maybe you know what years the acacia flowers were really killer, and you'll look for one of those years on a Creed Aubépine Acacia. At least Creed has deniability if you say it wasn't the same as another year; but you can't expect Mother Nature to have the same consistency as IFF or Firmenich.

So, children, that's why they're called "mIllésimes," which I never knew until now... but perhaps you did...

http://www.basenotes.net/entries/91-...3%A9simes-quot



Thank you Candide for highlighting same.





- - - Updated - - -

And to the OP:

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