Ginepro di Sardegna Acqua di Parma 2014

Opens with a pleasant blend of sweet woods and fresh citrus notes. When these fade, I see warm spices, aromatic herbs and dry woods, reminding me very much of Balmain's Carbone. The scent is nice and well-done, but nothing outstanding. It's rather quiet and smells quite "traditional". I had expected a greener, more aggressive fragrance, with added emphasis on the juniper and cypress notes.

Ginepro (juniper) di Sardegna starts out fresh, citrusy with something herb-ish and woods, and then it melts into a very pleasant, woodsy scent with the citrus still lingering for a surprisingly long time, considering the notes. I guess the juniper and cypress contribute to this freshness. All in all, I find the Ginepro di Sardegna very pleasing. This is no statement scent, but the one you grab for hot summer days, and perhaps, evenings, when you want to smell nice and a bit expensive but anything else is too much. My sample is nearly empty, and I am no stranger to the idea of buying a full bottle.

My first testing was in the summer 17' and it was a hit & miss for me. I did not care much for it - compared with the other 6-8 samples I had gotten from AdP. Fast forward a year and to the fall - this is where it has become real interesting for me. I think it works best for me in the early fall. To be fair, I think it could be worn in the spring as well and winter for the office. To me it's a great daily and office fragrance, cause I do like the smell. In the summer time, all I get is juniper, but in the colder and/or rainy days I do get a hint of some citrus, but still the juniper is the main note. To me, it reminds me of sweet wood, maybe a bit like the old wood-shop at the school when I was kid. But it is a green wood type, with some citrus. It's still a light woody scent and last 5-7 hours on my skin. I'm on my 3rd sample in a year now and it has gone on my to-buy list.

The fact that something does not fit in, will never give you sufficient reason to evaluate it on its own terms and I do believe that to be the case for the discontinued Ginepro di Sardegna.
It did never quite fit into the Blue Mediterraneo line of Acqua di Parma in my view, because far from being just a summer freshie, it is a pretty classic male allround scent good to wear at any time of the year. I am saying "male" because the style harks back to a time when that distinction was very important, mostly because companies knew well that most men, a few decades ago, would shun anything associated with femininity. And most men did not buy perfume voluntarily.

Having said that, I should quickly point out that what you would find in this bottle is/was light enough to be very appropriate for summer use, and it lacks the sharpness of, say, Guerlain's Vetiver or Pino Silvestre. But those two should give a clue about the style: Conifer, warm spice and a light barbershop touch. I therefore think that the combination of the warm allspice together with coniferous juniper and woods is something I personally associate with those classics from the late 1950s. It is easy going, fresh and clean, but harder to pinpoint stylistically because it does not really have those strong distinguishing features of the scents associated with the same aromatics that is in use here. It is a bit like when the French band Nouvelle Vague makes bossanova cover versions of punk and post punk classics: Same melody, and those who knew the original will know and (mostly) appreciate it. This is just my perfect daytime scent that energises me and leaves me completely indifferent to the milieu I find myself in because I think no one will instinctively stereotype you if you wear it. It does remind me of the mediterranean region, but in the same way any cosmopolitan, top quality pasta dish would.
Some would think of such a concept as bland and uninteresting of course, but nearly everyone still appreciate good food even if it is pasta.

I paid a small fortune for a 180ml bottle on eBay. Albeit not more than it did cost at full retail price in its time, yet twice what you could find it for on sale. It felt a bit silly, but this is something I will always love, because it has this little personal, extra something. Not really my typical thing, but I do love the group Nouvelle Vague...

It seems that not only is Ginepro di Sardegna gone, but that the perfumer Mélanie Carestia have vanished too. From what I can see, she studied under Michel Almairac, the nose that created Fahrenheit and Zino, then she made 4-5 creations herself, before she went away somewhere. I hope she will come back for an encore.

I would not have expected such a performance from these blue bottles. I only have a sample myself (many thanks to Pluto!), but of course, I have already held one of the Bembels in my hand at Alsterhaus. I'm curious to see how the others are, I still have a few testers lying around.

In any case, Ginepro di Sardegna hits hard right away. Juniper, of course, but especially spices of a related character. Robustly applied, yet pleasantly refreshed with citrus and thus overall well balanced. Great for the hot days during which the test took place. So that's the first impression.

Unfortunately, the character of the fragrance changes all too quickly. The fresh notes dissipate rapidly, while the spicy faction has significantly more staying power. Pimento and nutmeg are probably meant. However, it seems to me as if I am smelling something like a broth of boiled cloves. Strongly thickened and gently sweetened. Hour after hour, the prickly Eugenol stubbornly persists, for which cloves, and not the two mentioned colleagues, are primarily notorious.

After six hours, the focus shifts to cedar. It becomes increasingly dry and dusty throughout the afternoon. Nevertheless, that annoyingly persistent dominance of spice remains. That's enough for me now.

The knockout criterion for a purchase, of course, arose even before the end of the test day: Upon returning to my office after about two hours of absence, I felt olfactorily reminded of Christmas baking. That is not at all my thing for the time of year when Ginepro di Sardegna would likely be preferred. On the other hand: It is occasionally claimed that Santa Claus was once blue.