Al Ruba’ie

If you were fortunate enough to just complete running Ky nam through your distillation apparatus – it’s certain – you wouldn’t waste it and go and wash it down the drain you would immediately conduct another distillation to absorb all of the fragrant residual elements left behind in the plumbing. Whilst it may not sound like rocket science and the narrative unintriguing , Ky nam notes are extremely intense and a little goes a long way as personified by this Oil…

In the Arabic language ‘Al Ruba’ie’ means the Quadrant or Quartet. The story behind the name is simple, the Quadrant is where some of the most amazing Oudhs hail from; Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia and Indonesia. Each of these regions offer intense variations and variety when considering Oudh – from the powdery bitter sweetness of the Vietnamese to the barny animalic of Laos, the penetrating green-heart Malaysian to the ethereal Indonesian. The combination is of a multilingual quartet singing Heavenly Praise in perfect harmony.

Over a period of 12 months we collected shavings from dark resinous pieces of Oudh from Laos, Malaysia and Indonesia. Patiently stockpiling them waiting for just the right number of kilograms to fill our pots our vision was to co-distill in classical stainless-steel pots setup in the traditional Indian manner – we would call this the first step. The resultant oil was reddish-brown and thick. If one word could describe it: intense.

We then flew the oil across the ocean to our facility in Australia and cooked it again with resinous Vietnamese woods that we also used for our Kyara and Ky nam distillations (to be released in the coming months). Using the same apparatus (without washing down the gear) we ran the Vietnamese together with our Laos, Malaysian and Indonesian brew. The result was a beautiful shimmering dark brown bordering-on-black oil – encapsulating, mesmerising, sensual, hot and intensely captivating.

The oil has aged and cured in our special chambers for about 6 months and already exhibits the characteristics of much older oils. There are no sharp edges, no off notes. Just pure finesse. Al Ruba’ie is from amongst those oils that have been embraced by traditional perfumery of the pot, where the final product comes from the pot its self and not by mastery of blending.

At first inhalation, you are greeted with a wonderfully bitter-sweet dark resinous slightly cherry top note immediately capturing your attention and clutching your mind. The power of this oil is established immediately upon first whiff. When you apply it on the skin, multiple waves of heat, bitter sweet spices not Ky nam itself but wow what an amazing derivative of it, fragrant rum, ambergrisified rose, and the distinct powdery but sweetly resinous note of the Vietnamese.

The middle notes are amber rose, faint sensations of camphor, dripped with ripe tamarind, followed by tobacco, dried florals, a brisk woodiness that is not toppy but a deeper and sensual sweet musky wood, not animalic but the powdery sweetness of white musk.

Al Ruba’ie is the Vietnamese, Laos, Malaysian and Indonesian Quartet singing in beautiful harmony, melodious and simply beautiful; lend Al Ruba’ie your ear and listen in.