Nardinum
Fragrance guide

Whiskey or champagne: drink it, or wear it?

Perfumers have been raiding the drinks cabinet for decades. What we did not expect is that people wear these notes at the hours they would drink them.

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Nobody opens champagne at eleven o'clock on a February night. Nobody pours a whisky at a beach lunch. The drinks have their hours, everyone knows the hours, and nobody ever had to be told.

It turns out the fragrances keep the same schedule. We took every fragrance in the catalogue built on one of eight drink notes, 395 of them with enough votes behind the score to read, and looked at what the community had said about season and time of day. Whiskey averages 88 out of 100 for winter and 82 for night. Champagne runs the other way, 67 for summer and 94 for daytime. Cognac, rum, brandy, red wine, absinthe and vodka fall between the two in that order, which is roughly the order you would line them up behind a bar. Nobody planned that. It fell out of the votes.

The same axis shows up in who the bottles are sold to. Of the 34 whiskey fragrances that clear our vote floor and a 3.9 rating, 16 are marketed to men and 18 as unisex. None to women. Champagne runs the exact reverse, 17 of its 22 are women's. Women's fragrances are the largest of the three groups across the whole catalogue, so the whiskey split runs backwards against the shelf it sits on.

The method, once, so the rest of the page can get on with it. Rankings are average rating from real wearers, restricted to fragrances with at least 300 votes, so a handful of reviews cannot lift anything to the top. The season and time-of-day figures are voted rather than measured: they record when wearers say they reach for a bottle, which is not the same as when it performs best. We have not smelled any of these side by side. Nothing on this page claims a fragrance smells like the drink in its note list. It says the note is listed, and it says what the people wearing it reported.

What to look for

At the cold end, look for the drink note sitting with leather, tobacco and cedar, and expect a winter evening. At the warm end, look for musk, jasmine and grapefruit, and expect daylight. If you want the middle, go to rum: it is where most of this catalogue lives, and more than half of its strong entries are unisex.

When people wear them

Average season and time-of-day fit for each note, from the community’s own votes, across the fragrances that carry it and have at least 300 ratings. The count is there so you can see how much weight a row carries.

Winter · NightSummer · Day
Whiskey 42
88 winter · 82 night
Cognac 54
83 winter · 78 night
Rum 220
81 winter · 75 night
Brandy 9
80 winter · 79 night
Red Wine 13
71 winter · 79 night
Absinthe 21
66 winter · 66 night
Vodka 18
52 winter · 59 night
Champagne 36
43 winter · 46 night
season, 0–100 time of day, 0–100

Both scales run 0–100 and are voted, not measured: they say when wearers report reaching for a fragrance, which is not the same thing as when it performs best.

Eight drinks, eight different builds

Cold to warm, in the order of the rail above. The percentages are the share of each note’s fragrances that also carry the material named.

Whiskey: leather, tobacco, and no women's bottles at all

Whisky is a cold-weather drink poured after dark, and its fragrances land in exactly that slot: 88 for winter, 82 for night, the highest winter score on the page. Vanilla and amber top its pairings, as they top almost every pairing list in this catalogue. What sets the whiskey shelf apart sits underneath them, at leather on 26% and tobacco on another 26%. Tobacco is the real tell. It drops to 18% on cognac and 17% on rum, then falls off the page: zero on red wine, brandy, absinthe and vodka, 3% on champagne. Hide and smoke stop where whiskey stops.

This is also the most one-sided corner of the page: sixteen of the thirty-four strong entries are sold to men, eighteen as unisex, and not one to women. Mugler's A*Men Pure Malt anchors it, released in 2009 and still holding 4.46 from 6 663 people, with the 2013 Pure Malt Creation rated a little higher on a fraction of the votes. Givenchy's Gentleman Reserve Privée is the most-rated of the group at 9 173. It is also the one fragrance in the ranking below with no season data at all, which is why its meters print dashes instead of zeros.

Cognac sits next door and is built nothing like it

Cognac scores 83 for winter and 78 for night, one step warmer than whiskey and considerably less severe. Patchouli is on 53% of these, vanilla on 47%, sandalwood on 42% and tonka bean on 38%. That is a dessert trolley rather than a smoking room, from a drink that sits one shelf along from the whiskey and gets treated as a different substance entirely.

The oldest fragrance in this whole set is a cognac from 1925. The most-rated one is By Kilian's Angels' Share, released in 2020, which at 20 185 votes is also the most-rated boozy fragrance in the catalogue full stop. That house is the most committed to the idea in general: thirteen fragrances spread across six of the eight notes, more than anyone else on either count.

Rum got away from the bar

Two hundred and twenty-three of these fragrances carry rum, more than the other seven notes put together. At 81 for winter and 75 for night it sits close to cognac with none of the formality. Vanilla appears alongside it on 48%, which is mostly rum being used as a way to make vanilla interesting; patchouli, sandalwood, musk and tonka follow, and none of that is a surprise. If a boozy fragrance has crossed your path without announcing itself, the odds are it was this note.

It is also the least gendered corner of the eight. Of its 180 strong entries, 96 are unisex against 49 men's and 35 women's. Margiela's Jazz Club, from 2013, trails only Angels' Share on votes with 18 545.

Red wine, in thirteen fragrances

Thirteen clear the floor, so read this section as a sketch rather than a survey. What is there is consistent: amber on 62%, then musk, patchouli and sandalwood on 54% each, and then fruit, with raspberry on 38% and cherry and rose on 31% each. It is the only one of the eight where berries come near the top of the list, and one of four where tobacco never appears at all.

It scores 71 for winter but 79 for night, which ties brandy for second place behind whiskey. That combination describes a fragrance chosen for the evening rather than for the weather. It is also the newest group here, with a median release year of 2019.

Absinthe refuses to pick a season

66 for winter, 50 for summer, 73 for daytime. Absinthe is the only one of the eight that does not commit, and its pairings explain why. Vetiver leads at 43%, the only note on this page where vetiver comes first, with bergamot, cedar, jasmine and musk behind it and lavender, lime and orange blossom on about a fifth each. Green, dry and aromatic, with nothing dessert-like anywhere near it.

Creed's Viking is the most-rated of them at 3 956 votes, and MiN NEW YORK has three of the twenty-one, which is the closest thing absinthe has to a house of its own.

Vodka is a period piece

Vodka barely smells of anything, which is the point, and perfumery uses it accordingly. Musk sits on 72% of its fragrances, the strongest pairing anywhere on this page, with sandalwood and amber on 50% each, rose on 44% and lily-of-the-valley on a third. It scores 86 for daytime against 52 for winter, and 8 of its 13 strong entries are women's. Vodka is doing the work of the word clean here, not the work of a drink.

It is also the one note the industry looks finished with. Half of these were released before 2005 and only 4 of the 18 have appeared since 2015, against 87% of the whole boozy set released from 2010 onwards. Carolina Herrera's 212 VIP Men, from 2011, is the most-rated at 5 292 votes.

Champagne: flowers, citrus and daylight

Champagne gets opened in daylight, at weddings and lunches and on other people's boats, and its fragrances score 94 for daytime and 67 for summer, the brightest and warmest numbers on the page. Musk leads the pairings at 47%, then bergamot and jasmine at 31% each, vanilla and rose at 28%, grapefruit at 17%. Flowers and citrus, where whiskey had leather and tobacco.

Seventeen of its 22 strong entries are women's and exactly one is men's. It is also where the mass market turns up: Bath & Body Works has three of them and Etat Libre d'Orange another three, while no house has more than two anywhere at the whiskey end.

Brandy is on the rail above but has no section of its own: 9 fragrances clear the floor, which is too few to say anything about without inventing it.

The 15 best boozy fragrances

Ranked by average rating from real wearers, with a minimum vote count so the order stays reliable.

Giorgio Armani · 2021

1. Emporio Armani Stronger With You Absolutely

4.5/5 · 8,445 Masculine Lists Rum Best for cold weather

Emporio Armani Stronger With You Absolutely doesn't leave much room for subtlety. Rum and elemi open it warm and a little syrupy, and bergamot barely registers against that much sweetness right from the start.

Notes
Accords
When wearers reach for it
Winter100
Summer8
Night85
Day33
Longevity3.9/5
Sillage3.3/5
Full notes & ratings →
Givenchy · 2022

2. Gentleman Eau de Parfum Reserve Privée

4.4/5 · 9,173 Masculine Lists Whiskey

Bergamot opens bright and citrus-clean, brief before iris takes over and turns the fragrance powdery and a little cool. Chestnut sits alongside the iris, giving it a roasted, slightly bitter warmth that toughens the powder, pulling it away from anything purely soft or floral.

Notes
Accords
When wearers reach for it
Winter—
Summer—
Night—
Day—
Longevity—
Sillage—
Full notes & ratings →
Mugler · 2009

3. A*Men Pure Malt

4.5/5 · 6,663 Masculine Lists Whiskey

Whiskey and malt make A*Men Pure Malt smell like standing near an open barrel in a distillery, warm and faintly boozy in a way few fragrances attempt. Peat lends a dark, earthy undertone underneath that whiskey warmth, almost like the barrel itself has been charred.

Notes
Peat
Accords
When wearers reach for it
Winter100
Summer10
Night97
Day44
Longevity3.6/5
Sillage3.0/5
Full notes & ratings →
Roja Dove · 2013

4. Enigma Pour Homme

4.6/5 · 2,109 Masculine Lists Cognac Longest lasting Biggest projection

Enigma Pour Homme opens with a brisk snap of black pepper and bergamot, brightened by neroli’s soapy floral lift. That citrusy introduction lasts only minutes before the heart emerges: a generous pour of cognac mingled with sweet pipe tobacco, ginger’s warmth, and jasmine’s honey…

Notes
Accords
When wearers reach for it
Winter100
Summer13
Night98
Day42
Longevity4.3/5
Sillage3.7/5
Full notes & ratings →
Clive Christian · 2022

5. Blonde Amber

4.6/5 · 2,099 Unisex Lists Rum

Blonde Amber opens with a champagne pop of citrus and a slap of pink pepper, rum and olibanum smoldering underneath like embers catching on wet wood.

Notes
Accords
When wearers reach for it
Winter100
Summer17
Night90
Day37
Longevity3.9/5
Sillage3.4/5
Full notes & ratings →
By Kilian · 2020

6. Angels' Share

4.4/5 · 20,185 Unisex Lists Cognac Most loved

Cognac is the whole opening of Angels' Share, warm and boozy without a single other top note to share the space with it. It is a strange, confident way to start a fragrance, and one that turns out to be long-lasting, holding its shape well before it ever softens.

Notes
Candied Almond
Accords
When wearers reach for it
Winter100
Summer11
Night82
Day34
Longevity3.8/5
Sillage3.2/5
Full notes & ratings →
Nasomatto · 2016

7. Baraonda

4.4/5 · 5,510 Unisex Lists Whiskey

Whiskey opens Baraonda with an almost startling clarity, boozy and dry at once, before rose and ambrette soften the edge into something warmer.

Notes
Accords
When wearers reach for it
Winter98
Summer19
Night91
Day43
Longevity4.0/5
Sillage3.4/5
Full notes & ratings →
Hermès · 2004

8. Hermessence Ambre Narguile

4.4/5 · 3,973 Unisex Lists Rum

Hermessence Ambre Narguile takes its name from the hookah lounge but contains no actual smoke, built instead entirely from sweetness: honey, rum, caramel and cinnamon layered over tonka bean and vanilla.

Notes
Accords
When wearers reach for it
Winter100
Summer14
Night78
Day72
Longevity3.5/5
Sillage3.1/5
Full notes & ratings →
Initio Parfums Prives · 2016

9. Side Effect

4.4/5 · 8,536 Unisex Lists Rum

Side Effect doesn't bother with a bright opening. Rum and cinnamon show up immediately, warm and a little syrupy, with saffron adding a sharp, slightly medicinal edge on top.

Notes
Accords
When wearers reach for it
Winter100
Summer11
Night89
Day31
Longevity4.0/5
Sillage3.5/5
Full notes & ratings →
Bvlgari · 2014

10. Man In Black

4.3/5 · 9,874 Masculine Lists Rum

Rum and tobacco give Man In Black its first impression, dark and a little sweet, with spices adding warmth rather than sharpness. Leather and iris move in next, and tuberose brings an unexpected floral lift against all that darkness, with an animalic thread underneath giving the…

Notes
Accords
When wearers reach for it
Winter100
Summer9
Night95
Day34
Longevity3.4/5
Sillage2.8/5
Full notes & ratings →
Xerjoff · 2009

11. Uden

4.4/5 · 2,381 Unisex Lists Rum Best for warm weather

Uden opens with a bright, almost aggressive squeeze of lemon and grapefruit, but that citrus bite is quickly softened by a whisper of rum that never quite gets drunk.

Notes
Accords
When wearers reach for it
Winter35
Summer94
Night69
Day98
Longevity3.5/5
Sillage3.0/5
Full notes & ratings →
Argos · 2019

12. Triumph Of Bacchus

4.4/5 · 1,755 Unisex Lists Rum

Triumph Of Bacchus opens with a boozy splash of rum, but the sharp green apple and white peach slice through the sweetness like a knife through ripe fruit, giving it an unexpected crispness.

Notes
Accords
When wearers reach for it
Winter100
Summer16
Night91
Day45
Longevity3.9/5
Sillage3.4/5
Full notes & ratings →
Maison Alhambra · 2024

13. Kismet Magic

4.4/5 · 1,464 Unisex Lists Cognac

It opens with a slug of cognac, boozy and a little sharp, but that edge softens fast as cinnamon and tonka wrap around it like a warm scarf. The oak in the heart isn’t dry or splintery; it’s polished smooth, almost resinous, giving the whole thing a woody spine that keeps the swe…

Notes
Accords
When wearers reach for it
Winter100
Summer6
Night84
Day37
Longevity3.5/5
Sillage2.9/5
Full notes & ratings →
Guerlain · 2009

14. Homme Intense

4.4/5 · 1,727 Masculine Lists Rum

Guerlain Homme Intense opens with a slap of mint so green and boozy you’d swear a mojito was sweating through your wrist. That rhubarb sourness cuts the sweetness before it cloys, and then the rum arrives warm, almost unwashed, backed by a geranium that smells like a crush in a g…

Notes
Accords
When wearers reach for it
Winter32
Summer90
Night87
Day94
Longevity3.5/5
Sillage2.8/5
Full notes & ratings →
Carolina Herrera · 2015

15. CH Men Prive

4.3/5 · 5,232 Masculine Lists Whiskey Best after dark

CH Men Prive is built for one specific window, cold nights, and does not pretend to work anywhere else. Whiskey and grapefruit open with a boozy, bitter citrus snap, and cardamom, lavender, sage, and red thyme move quickly into a warm, herbal heart with a distinctly nocturnal fee…

Notes
Accords
When wearers reach for it
Winter96
Summer9
Night100
Day36
Longevity3.2/5
Sillage2.8/5
Full notes & ratings →

Which one is best for what

The standout on each measure, drawn from real-wearer data across the fifteen above.

Most loved Angels' Share By Kilian the most-rated pick on this list Longest lasting Enigma Pour Homme Roja Dove top longevity score from wearers Biggest projection Enigma Pour Homme Roja Dove throws the most scent Best for cold weather Emporio Armani Stronger With You Absolutely Giorgio Armani highest winter fit Best for warm weather Uden Xerjoff highest summer fit Best after dark CH Men Prive Carolina Herrera leans most to evening wear

Not sure which one is you?

Describe how you want to smell and let Nardinum match it to real fragrances, ranked by fit.

Search by feeling →

Common questions

Do these actually smell like the drink?

Not the way a glass of it does. A perfumer uses the note for an impression, and what surrounds it decides the rest, which is why the whiskey fragrances arrive with leather and the champagne ones with jasmine. What we can tell you is which fragrances list the note and how wearers rate them, not what your nose will make of it.

Why is whiskey a men's note and champagne a women's one?

We do not know why. We only know that is how they are sold. Not one whiskey fragrance in this set is marketed to women, and 17 of the 22 champagne ones are. Wearers ignore it constantly, though: just over half the whiskey entries are unisex.

Why isn't bourbon on the list?

Because the Bourbon notes in our catalogue are not the whiskey. Bourbon Vanilla, Bourbon Vetiver, Bourbon Geranium and Bourbon Pepper are named after Île Bourbon, now Réunion, where the material is grown. Bourbon Vanilla on its own would have added 131 fragrances to this page that have nothing to do with a drink.

When do people actually wear these?

By the community's own season and time-of-day scores, whiskey and cognac lean to winter and evening, champagne and vodka to warm weather and daylight, and rum and red wine sit between them. The table above has the numbers note by note, with the sample size beside each one.

How did you rank these?

By average rating from real wearers, kept to fragrances with at least 300 votes so the order does not hinge on a handful of reviews. It is not our taste, and nobody paid to be on the list.