Jean Marie Farina Extra-Vieille Roger & Gallet 2012

The story of this "third Farina" or "Parisian Farina" (besides the genuine Kölnisch Wasser from 4711 and the competing product from Farina Gegenüber) is quite peculiar. The original father of the true Cologne Aqua Mirabilis was famously the Italian Giovanni Maria Farina, also known as Johannes or Johannis Maria Farina, who moved to Cologne, where his product began to be sold around 1720 and eventually became known as "Eau de Cologne."

However, Farina also had a great-great-nephew named Jean Marie Farina, who ended up in Paris. Since Jean Marie is the French translation of Johannes Maria and in earlier times first names were still linguistically convertible currency (people in Germany also referred to King Charles of England and King Philip of Spain, not Charles and Felipe), the rascal was able to establish his own perfume house in Paris in 1806 and claim without lying that he was selling the genuine Eau de Cologne from Giovanni Maria Farina.

In 1862, the gentlemen Roger and Gallet founded their soap and perfume company and eventually bought the shop from Jean Marie "rascal" Farina (probably from his heirs), thus acquiring the rights to the "genuine" Farina Cologne. These rights still formally belong to Roger & Gallet today. However, in 1975, the traditional house R&G was taken over by Sanofi (!) and subsequently sold by Sanofi to Gucci, and then from Gucci to L'Oréal.

This, however, does not prevent the current managers of R&G from emulating the old Jean Marie in cunningness: Although they mention on their own website that the entire company was founded only in 1862, it simultaneously states that the Cologne being reviewed here was "the founding product" of the company in 1727. Well, in the perfume sector, one should generally only believe those advertising texts that one has invented oneself.

The product being reviewed is mentioned on the R&G website (see above), but it is not offered in the online shop. However, it can be found in some online perfumeries, such as Notino and Parfumsclub, with the usual price being around 25 euros per 100-ml spray bottle, while some other suppliers are more expensive. Parfumsclub also offers, unsurprisingly given the Spanish origin of the house, a 200-ml and a 500-ml splash bottle.

I prefer Farina Extra-Vielle (something like "Farina Ancient") over Apicius, but less than Yatagan. I perceive the opening as very lemony, while also notably greenish and (a bit too) sweet. It’s like the generously sugared rim of a cocktail glass, on which sits a plump, fat, green lime wedge.

Subsequently, there are occasionally sour clouds and some with a certain sharpness, but overall, for about three hours (if you count the very, very close-to-skin phase), a fairly continuous Cologne freshness dominates with a strong herbaceous to herb-woody note. I almost think I can smell something like basil, and if Farina weren't even in the name, one might consider whether the scent would be better placed among the brown Colognes of the "colonial goods" line or at least among the green-spicy fougère border-crossing Colognes like Lehmann's "New York." But it can rightly remain in the classic category, even if it doesn't rank very high in the charts for me.

It should be noted that the scent contains almost the entire classic Farina program with neroli, lemon, bergamot, and rosemary. Lavender is missing and is indeed not detectable, just as clove and rose, which are additionally listed on the "Notino" fragrance pyramid. Neroli is substituted by petitgrain in some Colognes; here both are listed, yet from my perspective, there is no booster effect, and the whole orangey direction comes across as rather underexposed.

All in all, the overall picture does not convince me much; I find the scent development not quite rounded and harmonious and the fragrance rather a bit boring than classic. I would prefer 4711 here as more exciting, distinctive, and coherently composed. But as one can see with Yatagan (and Sven1209), this is once again very subjective.

To conclude, since farina is the Italian term for flour, one might wonder whether having Hans Maria Mehl on the national ID card could still be an asset today to make some serious profit.