ROSES IN WONDERLAND “Roses Au Pays des Merveilles” By Jacques Mouchotte MEILLAND INTERNATIONAL

MODERN ROSES AND THEIR FRAGRANCE:

• Modern roses appear in a variety of colours, flower shapes, and types of plants. This diversity can be easily observed and nobody denies it. The fragrance, which is the most beautiful attribute of this botanic type follows the same rule, the diversity is amazing. Not only modern roses are fragranced, but with a controlled hybridising for successive generations, we have been able to reinforce and pinpoint smells which are not or rarely described in traditional roses. One cannot talk about the fragrance of roses, but the fragrances of roses. They are as diverse as their colours can be.

The vocabulary used by the Robertet France perfumers in order to describe our recent creations during our experimenting sessions is fascinating:

For a Rose note: May Rose, Classic Rose
For a Fruity note:
Red Fruits: Raspberry, Alpine Strawberry
Tropical Fruits: Mango, Lychee, Passionfruit, Banana
Yellow Fruits: Apricot, Peach
Cooked Fruits: Prune, Stewed Apple, Quince paste, Medlar, Morello Cherry marmalade
Citrus Fruits: Orange Zest, Lemon Verbena
Woody Note: Walnut, Linseed
Green Note: Hay Harvest, Cut Grass, Green Apple, Cistus, Lentisque, Crushed Ivy
Floral Note: Lilac, Muguet, Freesia, Linden, Mimosa, Violet, Ylang Ylang, Privet Flower
Spicy Note: Tea, Carnation, Clove, Ginger-aniseed : Fennel, aniseed, liquorice – Honey – Peppery
Malodour Note: Wine Lees, Hot Metal, Fermented Grapes, Wet Cloth, Squashed Bug (the type which smells like dirty toilets when you touch it-editor’s note), Dust, Cold Tobacco, Paracresol.

All this for just one plant species :“rosa hybrida”, that is: contemporary rose bushes resulting from controlled hybridation: isn’t this extraordinary!!
 

II – The chemistry of the rose fragrances:

• The Meilland/Robertet partnership
• It started in the mid-eighties and consists of several work sessions per year.
• The perfumers give their odour descriptions of the roses, with their vocabulary, and select the most unusual ones or the most powerful ones. They can as a result find new inspirations for their finished fragrance compositions.
• The chemists use headspace technology to identify in an analytical way the fragrant molecules responsible for the fragrance. It is so precise that it can pinpoint new aromatic raw materials, or new/unusual chemical molecule combinations.
• The perfumers can return to their creative den to design fragrance compositions, mainly inspired from the scent of the rose which was analysed.

III – Is this rose fragranced?

• The answer to this very simple question is rarely yes or no. Many physiological and environmental factors interfere and tamper with the answer.
• The scent of a rose evolves as it develops. In the young buds which are still very tight,the fragrant molecules are not yet free, one needs to wait for the beginning of the blooming stage up to its end, for the scent to develop. This explains mainly why the fresh roses found in florists don’t smell. They are separated from the mother plant before the fragrance develops and this separation generally interrupts the biological synthesis which allow the creation of the fragrant molecules. The famous rose Sonia Meilland ®, which was very popular with florists in the seventies and eighties, develops a very nice peppery smell when it blooms on the plant. The fragrance does not develop if the flower is cut to be shipped away.
• Roses also have an internal cycle and the kinetics of the liberation of the scents has been measured throughout the day. The maximum scent emission occurs at the beginning of the afternoon, straight after what scientists who deal with plant physiology call “the midday depression”.
• The environmental factors are also very important, as it is well-known that a rose will not have any (or very little) scent on windy or rainy days. A calm atmosphere with high relative air humidity and temperatures over 20°C are the most favourable.
• Every single person is unique as to smelling. A smell does not exist in itself, what is real is the event which allowed the molecule and its receptor to meet: the nasal mucous membrane in this case. The characteristics of smell depend as much on the person as on the fragrant molecule. This process is of course very subjective as to the actual perception, which is linked to the innate character of the individual, and also as to the hedonistic appreciation which is mostly led by acquired characters.
• The olfactory system can be divided into a peripheral area which contains the nasal mucous membrane situated in the nasal cavity, and an intracranial part constituted with the olfactive bulb and the linked brain areas. In the peripheral area, the molecule will come near the mucous membrane and the receptor will send a first signal to the olfactive bulb which will analyse the data very fast (quality and quantity), then will send a new signal to the brain, which will result in perception. If many receptors are stimulated, the smell will be perceived as intense and this information will call on the memory centres to allow recognition. We have around ten million olfactive nervous fibres concentrated on two square meters of nasal mucous membrane, which is enormous, even when comparing the pixels of our computers and digital cameras. These neurones are the only ones of our nervous system which are exposed to a direct contact with the outside, therefore they are very fragile, but luckily they can regenerate themselves. Each of them only react to a certain amount of olfactive stimuli: they are selective. The discrimination can be defined as the capacity to distinguish between signals, in a complex chemical system.
• The refinement of the discrimination of such a system defies imagination, according to some authors, but this also means that one individual can be non-sensitive to one particular molecule (specific anosmia). If that molecule happens to be a major component to the smell of tested rose, it will be perceived as non fragranced.
• Try this experiment, with a group of around 10 people: ask them to comment on the intensity of the fragrance, the hedonistic quality of the fragrance of a particular rose; each evaluation will be different.
• The human vocabulary does not allow us to name a scent precisely unlike with colours. Memory has to be activated, in order to associate a smell to a past situation, a particularly important event, or to a word (which corresponds to the label containing the pure product). Perfumers, on the top of their artistic sensitivity which enables them to create new fragrances, have had to learn the equivalent of a foreign language with its own vocabulary which begins with olfactive perception and ends with a definite word.
• Perceiving fragrances can be compared with listening to choir music. To detect its beauty, it is not enough to listen to each singer individually sequentially. We must listen to all the participants at the same time, and also to the modulations of each voice compared to the other.

DOMINANT ROSE NOTE: 1963 – PAPA MEILLAND® Var.Meicesar Classical May Rose with a light citrussy backnote. 1968 – BARONNE E. DE ROTHSCHILD® Var. Meigriso Classic May Rose with light fruity notes: raspberry and lemon. 1984 – YVES PIAGET® Var. Meivildo Classic May Rose, Palmarosa, with a slight aniseed backnote. 1990 – TINO ROSSI® Var. Meicelna Classical rose, very powerful. Slight fruity raspberry note. 1992 – THE McCARTNEY ROSE® Var. Meizeli Classical Rose essence, liquor-like, Palmarosa, Nerol, with a slight verbena back note. 1995- AUGUSTE RENOIR ® Var. Meitoifar Classical May Rose with green, citrus, herbaceous, vanilla and sandalwood notes (Nantes 95). 1997 – BOLCHO. ® Var. Meizuzes Classical May Rose, strong and nice with a slight lemony fruity note. 2002 – ERIC TABARLY ® and RED EDEN ® Var. Meidrason Rosa Damascena. 2003 – BOTERO ® Var. Meiafone Rich harmonious fruit and flower bouquet: damascena rose Bulgarian type, redberry andcassis. A lot of body and character (Nantes 2001).

FRUITY NOTES:

1992- PRESTIGE DE LYON ® Var. Meinimo
Fruity Raspberry with a lemony backnote.

1996 – MARCEL PAGNOL ® Var. Meisoyris
Strong Fruity Raspberry with a spicy peppery back note.
 

CITRUS FRUITS:
1976 – CHARLES DE GAULLE® Var. Meilanein
Lemon Verbena.

1993 – TOULOUSE-LAUTREC ® Var. Meirevolt
Rosy very fresh Lemon Verbena fragrance.
 

YELLOW FRUITS:

1994 – HONORE DE BALZAC ® Var. Meiparnin
Ripe peach, green backnote.

1998 – MICHELANGELO ® Var. Meitelov
Fruity plum/peach fragrance.

2001 – ANDRE LE NOTRE ® Var. Meiceppus
Strong apricot fragrance, metallic note and rose geranium note.
 

TROPICAL FRUITS:
1999 – CAPRICE DE MEILLAND ® Var. Meisionver
Strong Passion fruit fragrance, harmonious blend complex of lychee and lemon, verbena, apple, peach, apricot, cassis, spices, carnation. This is almost a fragrance composition according to the perfumers.
 

COMPLEX FRUITY:
1995 – FREDERIC MISTRAL ® Var. Meitebros
Rosy fragrance with complex fruity notes: raspberry, plum, verbena and a slight aniseed back note.
 

SPICY NOTE:
1986 – JARDINS DE BAGATELLE® Var. Meimafris
Rich and abundant rose, very complex spicy fragrance, peppery, clove, complex green background. Not far from a fragrance composition.

1991 – PAUL RICARD ® Var. Meinivoz
Aniseed fragrance, anethol, very green liquorice note, chicory, walnut and leather.

1997 – MARIE CURIE ® Var. Meilomit
Strong spicy fragrance, clove. “Melliferous”.
 

GREEN NOTE:
1995 – GUY DE MAUPASSANT® Var. Meisocrat
Strong Granny Smith green apple scent with slightly citrussy pineapple.

1998 – ALPHONSE DAUDET ® Var. Meirouve
Fresh, nice green fruity, slightly rosy fragrance.

1999 – TRAVIATA ® Var. Meilavio
Green freshly cut grass fragrance.

1999 – ELLE ® Var. Meibderos
Strong green rosy fragrance: slightly spicy green banana, peppery background.
 

WOODY NOTE:

2002-LOLITA LEMPICKA® Var. Meizincaro
Very precise rosy woody fragrance. Almost a fragrance composition: floral with jasmine and rose, fruity, with apple, apricot and green lemon.

2003 – BRIOCHE (name to be patented)
Strong woody fragrance, spicy cinnamon, milky, lactone was recognised in blindfolded tests, it is impossible to think that one is smelling a rose.
 

UNUSUAL NOTES:

1998 – GALAXY ® Var. Meihuterb
Linseed oil fragrance, with dewy grass and lentisque note, honey sugary woody scent.

1999 – CARTE BLANCHE ® Var. Meibarum
Bread dough raising, crushed ivy, smelly squashed bug (!), sugar, phenyl ethyl alcohol.
 

FLORAL NOTE:

1992 – Magic MEILLANDECOR ® Var.Meibonrib
Very subtle floral note, Muguet, Freesia, which creates a fragranced veil all around the plant.
 

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