My Top Montagne Parfums — How Close Are They to the Originals, and Are Any Actually Better? I look at Montagne a little differently than I do most clone houses. I have always said that if you're cloning a fragrance, name the original. I don't care how good the clone is; the original deserves the credit. Then I judge the clone for what it actually is. For me, there are two questions: How close did they get to the original? And maybe even more importantly: Did they do anything that actually makes me want to wear the Montagne instead? Montagne is one of the few clone houses where I can legitimately say the answer to that second question is sometimes yes. These are the Montagne bottles that stand out the most to me. 1. Tigris Cologne — Inspired by Bvlgari Tygar This may still be Montagne at its best. You get that huge sparkling grapefruit sitting over the clean woody ambroxan base that makes Tygar so ridiculously easy to wear. The original Tygar is smoother and more refined. You can tell where some of that extra money went when you smell them directly beside each other. But Tigris Cologne gives me a juicy grapefruit, a very good presence, and gets extremely close to the overall experience. This isn't something I smell and say, “that's pretty good for a clone.” It's just a damn good fragrance. Closeness to the OG: 95% Better than the OG? In refinement, no. But when you bring grapefruit, performance and value into the conversation, I can make an argument for Tigris Cologne. My rating: 9.5/10 2. Afternoon Dive — Inspired by Louis Vuitton Afternoon Swim Another one Montagne absolutely nailed. Afternoon Swim has that gorgeous natural orange and mandarin opening that Louis Vuitton does extremely well. Afternoon Dive is a little sharper and slightly more citrus-peel-like right at the beginning, but give it a few minutes and these two get surprisingly close. The bigger issue for me is performance. Afternoon Swim smells fantastic, but I have always wanted more staying power out of that DNA. Afternoon Dive hangs around better.

Anyone else here love vintage fragrances? There's just something about these 30-40+ year old frags that keeps me going back. I just scored a 1993 Polo Crest today, one more for the collection! There are a few that are still done well IMO. Modern versions of Antaeus, Safari, and several Guerlain are still solid. Not quite as good as vintage, but solid. And on the flip side of that the current versions of Polo and Cool Water make me sad. I'd love to know your favorite old school frag and see some pics if you've got them.