Bortnikoff — Sir Winston Attar
Essence
Don’t let the bulldog-and-cigars name fool you. Sir Winston is the great bait-and-switch of Dmitry Bortnikoff’s catalogue: a fragrance christened after Churchill’s boozy, smoke-wreathed evenings that turns out to be a luminous, candied tuberose drenched in real ambergris. The Attar (2020) is the oil-based, extrait-plus sibling of the 2019 spray - same DNA, denser delivery, and a slightly different opening. Where most “tobacco oud” launches chase a masculine cliche, this one lands somewhere between an English drawing room and a vase of half-spent white flowers.
Scent Profile
The opening is famously bubblegum-sweet - “Bazooka bubble gum” is the phrase that comes up again and again - with tuberose reading as confectionery rather than carnal. The Attar diverges from the spray here: those who own both report the oil suppresses that sugary top, pushing the white florals forward as themselves and adding an overripe-orchard facet of apples or pears. Underneath, green tea gives a vegetal, faintly astringent lift. Then the ambergris does the heavy lifting - not subtle, a big golden, faintly salty, musky-resinous swell that several wearers describe as “exploding” mid-development and turning the whole thing into vanilla-tuberose warmth. The tobacco stays abstract: an unlit cigar of a certain vintage, unburnt cherry pipe tobacco, more idea than ashtray. The Bouya oud is the wildcard - on some skins a soft camphor-and-mint woody whisper, on others frankly barnyard-animalic. The drydown across both versions converges on a sweeter, floral-tinged tobacco-leaf register that reads as a richer, more floral cousin of Tabac d’Ore.
Performance
This is where the “attar” designation earns its keep. The spray extrait has been clocked at just shy of 19 hours, turning into a skin scent around the tenth hour but still detectable up close well past the fourteenth, credited to hefty quantities of top-grade real ambergris. The Attar, a concentrated oil, hugs the skin more: longevity stays marathon-long while sillage runs modest - the classic attar trade-off of intimate projection and refusal to die. Expect a scent that lives close after the first hour or two.
Wearing Context
Cool weather brings out the resins and tobacco, and it earns cold-and-dark-days favorite status for many. Just as many tie it to spring and a “dolce vita” mood because of the bright tuberose-tea top. It is genuinely unisex and leans, if anything, feminine - several men report their wives claiming it, or being told it read as a women’s scent. This is not an office-safe linear wood; it’s a statement floral-gourmand-amber for occasions where you want to smell expensive and slightly mysterious rather than anonymous.
Comparisons & DNA
The most-cited reference is Amouage Portrayal Woman, to which Sir Winston reads as a more tuberose-forward, ambergris-amplified cousin. The sweet tobacco-leaf drydown invites comparison to Tabac d’Ore, sweeter and more floral here. Within Bortnikoff’s own line it sits at the gourmand-floral-amber end, far from heavy ouds like Oud Maximus or Mysterious Oud. More broadly it shares the brand’s naturals-forward density with Areej Le Dore - a literal link, since Dmitry Bortnikoff and Areej’s founder co-founded the essential-oil house Feel-Oud before each launched his own brand - though Bortnikoff’s work is generally judged more approachable and less unrelentingly animalic.
Reception
Polarizing within an admiring fanbase. Sir Winston draws strong love - “a white-shirt-supreme scent,” “the most pleasing fragrance of Dmitry’s fourth collection” - and equally strong dissent. The critic Kafkaesque, a tuberose lover, ultimately struggled with it, finding the bubblegum note inescapable and the whole “too sweet for me” while still praising the raw-material quality; one reviewer was blunt enough to call it terrible, citing cloying tuberose and an off-note from the ambergris. The consensus lands on technically superb materials wrapped around a love-it-or-headache-inducing sweetness profile. Because the oud, tobacco, and boozy facets are wildly skin-dependent, the near-universal advice is to test before buying. Value sentiment is favorable for the materials on offer, with the small attar format treated as a relatively accessible way in.
Versions & Reformulation
Two concentrations exist: the 2019 Sir Winston extrait de parfum (50 ml spray) and the 2020 Sir Winston Attar (oil, sold in roughly 3 gram presentations), classified as a concentration variant of the extrait. They are not identical - owners report the attar tames the sweet bubblegum opening and foregrounds the white florals and a fruity nuance, converging with the spray only in the sweet-tobacco drydown. Both belong to the house’s “4th Collection.” With each perfume stated to contain between 95% and 100% natural ingredients and batches kept small, meaningful batch-to-batch variation is likely.
Acquisition Notes
Sold directly through the house and a handful of authorized niche stockists. The attar has appeared around the 116 to 125 euro mark for the 3 g size, while the 50 ml spray extrait sat near $350. Distribution is limited and items sell out, then sometimes return in new batches. Given how skin-dependent the oud is and how divisive the sweetness, decants and samples - which circulate widely - are the sensible way to start. Buy from the house or known authorized retailers.
Notable Facts & Lore
- The name is the running joke: everyone expects booze and smoke, and the reality is floral and sweet, prompting endless “not very Churchillian” commentary.
- The composition leans on rare materials - real Atlantic ambergris and Indonesian Bouya oud among them.
- Dmitry Bortnikoff co-founded the essential-oil house Feel-Oud with the future founder of Areej Le Dore before launching his own brand, which gives Sir Winston its connoisseur pedigree.
- The Bouya oud is notoriously skin-dependent, ranging from a soft camphor-mint whisper to an animalic growl.
- A favorite reading imagines Churchill at his Chartwell studio among newspapers, cigars, and a vase of half-withered flowers.