As far as leathery chypres go, few compare to Aramis. It's one of the few leather frags that actually smells chapped to me. Its bitter citrus and powdery herbal components are expertly arranged around a hay-like coumarin. Yet I never really liked Aramis. This post attempts to explain why. (If you don't have time to read on, here's the summarization of everything below: I'm biased.)
Something about the way it opens is confrontational to me. The citrus barrage of the top notes is crisp and woody, but also blank, colorless, like a starched white shirt, and holds little intrigue beyond a desiccated offering of sage and vetiver. After a while a petrified accord of oakmoss and patchouli coalesces around a stony base of precious (petrified) wood, abstract gardenia, and more unhappy vetiver. Crisp, pungent, earthy, dry, sharp, masculine, and classic are descriptors that apply. There's no denying that it smells like something of the sixties, and its 1965 release date and conservative chypre structure suggest it is the Cabochard edit centerpiece of Chant's limited masculine oeuvre.
Unfortunately a personal association influences my feelings about Aramis. I went to high school with a guy who drove a rundown 1981 Cadillac Deville, chain-smoked Marlboros, and routinely drank Busch Lite on his father's boat, which was permanently parked in the driveway. He leered at girls, listened to grunge rap, and hawked a potent strain of weed to hopeless freshmen. He was a friend, but a bad friend, always trying to involve me in schemes that drew police attention. This walking bachelor party's signature scent was Aramis. Despite his debaucheries, he wore it with restraint. Not once did he emerge from a cologne haze like so many other Le Male-abusing morons. But for me Aramis suffers from guilt by association. It's not Aramis' fault. It's just how it is.
Memories are memories, and I can't help but remember my old buddy every time I sniff Aramis. Maybe I'm simply not man enough to wear it. But that shouldn't stop you from giving it a try. While you're at it, maybe try putting the boat in water, just once, and see if that does anything for it.