When the De Atramentis inks arrived at Art Brown International Pen Shop in early October I saw a few of their regular inks at the 2009 NYC Pen Show but decided to wait until the fair at Art Brown's to pick up a few of the wine-based inks. Big mistake, when I got there they had only 5 or 6 bottles left; the sales clerk seemed a bit dazed telling me how fast these inks went. In the scented inks, the coffee, vanilla, and chocolate were also gone as was the whiskey-based brown ink. I didn't really feel like almond or peach so I decided to pass on the scented inks until they restocked.
I did purchase two of the wine-based inks, Barolo and Dornfelder; this color comparison of De Atramentis Barolo, Dornfelder, Bordeaux Red, and Noodler's Widowmaker shows them swabbed on a sheet of Rhodia unlined paper. The colors surprised me a bit, to see how similar the Dornfelder and Noodler's Widowmaker are on a test swab. The Widowmaker is slightly more red, while the Dornfelder has a touch more pink in it. And the Barolo doesn't have as much purple in it as the Bordeaux Red, which is not a wine-based ink but a regular De Atramentis ink in a wine color. I'm looking forward to getting a few more when they arrive from Germany, I'd like to see more of the range of reds. Certainly the De Atramentis has some stunning red shades, and using a wine base is, if nothing else, a great marketing idea.
Thank for this post. I had been waiting for them to get the scented inks in. Last time I checked they were not sure what scent belonged to what color.
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