Oud is the material perfumers are most afraid of. It is expensive, it is inconsistent from one distillation to the next, and it can overwhelm a composition in a single drop. Jordi Fernández works with the real thing, and it is why his name is spoken with a certain reverence among people who care about this.
A senior perfumer at Givaudan, Fernández has built a body of work around the idea that oud is not a note to be added but a landscape to be walked through. His compositions place it beside things it has no business being near, tropical fruit, sunlit citrus, and make the pairing feel inevitable. The industry's nickname for him, the master of oud, is the kind of thing that is usually marketing. In his case it is simply a description.
Where to smell it
Maison Crivelli's Oud Maracujá is the clearest introduction: the passionfruit is bright and almost juicy, and the oud underneath is dark, resinous and patient, so that the fragrance seems to change temperature as it wears. Nishane's Oudous Lux Solis takes a different road, opening with light and citrus and letting the smoke arrive slowly, as if the sun were going down on it.
What he says about it
Fernández has said that a fragrance is never finished, that there is always another layer to explore. It is the right way to approach his work. Smell either of those compositions in the first ten minutes and you have met the introduction. Wear one for a day and you have met the perfumer.
Both sit in Stacey's library, and both are on the table when a consultation turns towards the East.