First, we want to express our immense gratitude to our friends and customers and the aromatics community at large for your incredible support during this challenging time. Tony’s wife Tha, especially, is going through a very difficult time, and your support is absolutely indispensable.
We would like everyone to know that Tha and I plan to continue operating and expanding Aroma Sublime. Of course, we are moving slowly right now. We are recovering from a huge loss with our founder passing, and it will take some time to re-orient ourselves. Especially on the Vietnam side of the business.
There are some positive notes looking forward. Tha has unquestionably become a master distiller, having worked alongside Tony for so many years. In recent years, since Tony’s health had deteriorated, I have watched Tha orchestrate the distillation of incredible Oud oils entirely on her own, from processing a whole wild agarwood tree with the team, to personally monitoring the still in the middle of the night, to the moment the Oud is clarified and put away for aging, she does it all. Tony was of course delighted by all this and very proud of Tha’s impressive skill. As am I.
Some of these magnificent oils are presently being aged. These include a completely unexpected sinking Oud oil, created using a very nice (non-sinking) wood from the Khanh Hoa region. Watch for these oils coming soon.
Contrary to the imaginings of some of our hopeful admirers, there is no big secret collection of Tony’s oils waiting to be released. We wish this were the case!
Rather, we hope to honor Tony’s legacy by continuing to create superb Oud through the continued application of Tony’s philosophy and wisdom to the process.
We definitely uncovered a few pleasant surprises when I was in Vietnam on-site over the summer. Small amounts of some superb oils. These are mostly already sold out.
I feel immense gratitude for these final months I was able to enjoy on-site with Tony.
After Tony’s passing, Tha did uncover one new Oud. It’s probably the last one that was distilled entirely by Tony. It’s a classic “Tony”, a straightforward sweet and balanced wild Vietnam profile, and very smooth after more than 3 years of aging. There is only about 30ml available. Distilled from selected wild agarwood from the Hue imperial City and Da Nang regions. IMPERIAL STAR is a perfect Oud to release now in honor of Tony’s work and legacy.
You can read the full description in the listing on our website. https://www.aromasublime.com/shop/imperial-star-100-wild-oud-in-house-hue-vietnam
We appreciate your support.
Pierre Black and Aroma Sublime