Not drawn yet: a drawing of what it smells like.

Whisky lactone

Ingredients · Sweet · dry-down

Whisky lactone

Say itWhisky LAK-tohn

Coconut, celery and fresh oak with a sweet, toasted woodiness.

What it is
A molecule made in a lab.
Where it comes from
also made synthetically
When you smell it
Dry-down: hours later.
What perfumers do with it
Gives barrel-aged whisky and cognac character to boozy, woody and tobacco accords.
Worth knowing
Identified in whisky in 1970; spirits pull it out of oak barrel wood while they age.
Also called
Oak lactone; beta-methyl-gamma-octalactone; quercus lactone

Not on the label of any of the 232 perfumes read so far.