PARIS — Just steps away from Paris’ last working vineyard, there may be a recent liquid being vinted under the hill of Montmartre.

Perfumer Sebastien Plan recently opened Abstraction Paris, an atelier for an exclusive series of scents by that name, that are matured in a cellar, inspired by winemaking traditions.

Plan trained at natural fragrance and flavors supplier Robertet, and held positions at Cosmo Fragrances International and L’Oréal, where he frolicked sourcing ingredients equivalent to jasmine. There, Plan noted the harvest varied depending on 12 months, producer and terrain — essential points for wine. Nonetheless the massive fragrance firms generally select the plants making essentially the most uniform blends that remain consistent over time.

“I believed to myself, ‘What a pity,’ because within the wine industry the undeniable fact that the grape, the soil, the 12 months and the sun are aspects that make the tastes variable is a strength,” he said. “And in perfumery, we hide those differences. I used to be convinced that those differences is also a strength.”

Like many a fragrance story in France, his begins in Grasse, where Plan and 4 fledgling perfumers became friends. They went on to pursue careers at various suppliers — Alexander Lee at Mane, Alexandra Carlin at Symrise, and Amelie Jacquin and Mylène Alran at Givaudan — but remained close through the years.

A decade-and-a-half later, in Paris, Plan invited his friends for dinner and asked if each would create a fragrance duo. The one direction given was the brand name — Abstraction — and his definition of the word: that one can turn into so caught up in a moment that every thing else disappears.

Plan put complete trust within the perfumers to interpret the Abstraction concept. “Because I’ve known them for 15 years, I knew thoroughly that they knew tips on how to create a perfume, and I actually wanted their versions of the concept of the brand. I didn’t wish to put my nose into it,” he said.

Plan actually didn’t, and only got a primary whiff of the scents the week they were set to debut in May.

The result was 10 creations, a series of 5 eau de parfum duos with evocative names, equivalent to Our Own Backyard, Accidental Possibly, Here We Belong, Mirror-Mirror and Plan’s own Slow Burn Desire.

Arlan’s Mirror-Mirror is supposed to invoke the sensation of self-discovery and reflection. One in every of the scents within the pair has top notes of bergamot and lemon, heart notes of neroli and orange blossom, on a base of vetiver and coconut notes. Its sibling scent has a top note of cardamom, a heart note of cedarwood and patchouli, with a base note of myrrh.

Plan’s Slow Burn Desire includes one scent with light top notes of rose and peach, a heart of saffron and base notes of cedar. His paired scent has top notes of nutmeg and cumin, heart of ylang-ylang and jasmine, and a base note of amber.

He has a singular fragrance-making process, buying ingredients directly from suppliers, including Robertet, Firmenich and Symrise, then mixing the scents by hand in his atelier. Among the juices are kept for this 12 months’s mix, and he ages the remaining.

Plan experimented with the method for 3 years, using each natural aging in addition to heated techniques to simulate different time frames. While he intends to check out wood barrels and other materials in the longer term, for now the scents are stored in glass bottles.

Before releasing the fragrances, he had 100 nonindustry experts try them out.

“I didn’t wish to launch a brand on marketing concepts and saying, ‘Well it’s older, so it’s higher,’” said Plan. “I desired to make sure that individuals who should not trained are capable of smell the difference between the various years.”

The outcomes? Greater than 80 percent could sense the difference between the vintages, and 40 percent preferred the aged scent.

“The links between all of the raw materials move over time. Some characteristics come out after some time, after which the 12 months after that they recede and one other facet will bloom,” Plan explained. “It’s identical to wine.”

Plan compares this to revisiting one winery 12 months after 12 months, a process he undertook as a part of his research. “While you take the identical wine from the identical property, even when it’s the identical [farmer] and the identical grape, it’s a special 12 months and the sun and the water weren’t the identical,” he said. “You should have differences in taste.”

Plan believes macerating perfume in such a fashion has never been done before. “I desired to propose something recent,” he said.

Altogether, only one,000 bottles of every fragrance can be made every year. Plan selected for Abstraction’s flacons an antique bottle literally taken off a shelf while touring French glassmaker Waltersperger’s archives.

“I actually liked the concept of giving a recent life to this bottle, regardless that I actually have absolutely no idea of the brand or perfume that it was used for,” said Plan.

He made a rudimentary sketch of the swirling cap, which took a 12 months to develop “exactly like I imagined it.” Customers can choose from blue, pink, white or green versions.

A vertical label and wax seal are applied by hand, before being placed in a sustainably made, water-based ink printed box and atop a bed sewn from excess textiles sourced from LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Every thing is made in France to scale back Abstraction’s environmental impact.

Each 100-ml. bottle retails for 220 euros, and refills go for 180 euros. A discovery box of 10, 3-ml. samples of scents sells for 50 euros.

Starting in September 2023, recent “vintages” of the ten fragrances can be released annually, so in the longer term someone might say: “I’d like Slow Burn Desire from 2024.”

Abstraction fragrances can be found online, at abstractionparis.com and in Plan’s atelier, which soft-opened in May in Montmartre. It’s being discovered by passersby — each locals and tourists.

“I really need to construct on the shopper experience, and put a priority on people,” he said.