Alta

This one is definitely a grower. It indeed has that typical Macy's men cologne vibe, but despite that, it does a good job of providing a feeling of sophistication. To my nose, caraway is the star of the show here, followed by cardamom. Overall, it takes a fresh and spicy direction for me, rather than an aromatic woody one. The closest resemblance would probably be Amouage Honour Man, which swaps the caraway with a pepper accord. On paper, caraway gives off a "sweatiness" along with "dirtiness," but on the skin, it evolves beautifully into something more complex. Every time I wear this fragrance, it shows me a different facet, which alone deserves a shout-out for its complexity. The performance could be much better, considering the hefty price tag. Luckily for me, I got this for 1/5 of the retail price, and for that money, it outshines every major designer release in the past couple of years.

Alta takes the same basic scent pyramid (more or less) as traditional men's scents (Polo, Sauvage, YSL, Drakkar, etc.) and succeeds at making it soar. Where those latter scents carry the generic Macy's Cologne Counter dull stench, Alta is fresh and new, something I thought wasn't possible. (Terre d'Hermes comes close but ultimately I find it flat). Fantastic work, M. Chabert.