The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Tabaceau arrived in 2019 as part of Mona di Orio's Alinea collection, composed by perfumer Fredrik Dalman. The composition takes an unusual approach to the tobacco genre, one that resists obvious sweetness. Dalman built around oak wood absolute and tobacco absolute as co-anchors, treating both materials with equal weight in the structure. White thyme cuts through with herbal clarity, bringing a sharp green note that lifts the opening away from anything heavy or syrupy. Liatris spicata absolute adds depth, contributing an earthy, rooty quality that anchors the composition in something vegetal rather than confectionary. Vanilla CO2 rounds the edges without flattening them, offering a soft sweetness that feels more like wood resin than dessert.
What defines the character of Tabaceau is the deliberate inclusion of liatris spicata absolute, a material that brings warmth and a slightly dusty quality to the composition. Its presence pushes the fragrance toward something drier and more structural, away from the sweeter interpretations of tobacco that have become common. The oak wood absolute grounds everything with a grainy, woody realism that feels close to the actual material rather than an abstraction of it.
The evolution
The first fifteen minutes are brighter than expected. White thyme leads with sharp, clean herbal clarity, cutting through what you might anticipate from a tobacco composition. It's disorienting in a good way, like opening a door expecting one room and finding another. As the thyme recedes over the next hour, tobacco absolute moves forward. This is drier, more vegetal, carrying the smell of cured leaves in their natural state rather than anything processed or sweetened. Oak wood absolute settles alongside it, giving the whole composition a grainy, woody backbone that feels structural and considered. Liatris arrives in the middle hours with a warm sweetness that bridges tobacco and oak without either dominating, its earthy character grounding the composition while adding complexity.
Cultural impact
Tabaceau finds its place through its use of liatris spicata absolute and oak wood absolute as co-anchors, materials that bring an earthy, structural quality to the tobacco genre. The composition draws on classical approaches to tobacco rather than sweeter modern interpretations, offering something drier and more architectural in feel. Wearers tend to describe it as a fragrance for people who already know what they like: deliberate, unhurried, and closer to the skin than to the room. It rewards patience, asking the wearer to settle into its phases rather than expecting immediate impact.
The House
Mona di OrioMaison Mona di Orio emerged from a meeting between a classically trained French perfumer and a Dutch designer united by their passion for art and artisanal craft. Founded in Amsterdam in 2004, the house built its reputation on fragrances that bridge the golden heritage of 1920s and 1930s perfumery with a distinctly modern sensibility. Each scent plays with contrasts: light and shadow, sparkle and depth, the ephemeral and the enduring. The untimely passing of founder Mona di Orio in 2011 left a significant void, yet her vision continues through her partner Jeroen Oude Sogtoen and in-house perfumer Fredrik Dalman.
The Creator
Fredrik DalmanFredrik builds his formulas like a chef plating a dish. He often begins with a crystal-clear base - cedar, sandalwood, or ambergris - that grounds the composition.
