Berdoues
Berdoues
82 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The Calabrian lemon bursts with candied immediacy, bright enough to feel almost marmalade-like rather than purely citric, but within ninety seconds the Virginia cedar begins its dampening work, introducing a creeping dryness that feels almost medicinal. The initial impression is of biting into preserved lemon peel, then realising something woody lurks beneath.
By the second hour, the cedar has fully asserted itself, creating a linear woody-citrus conversation where neither dominates—the lemon has become more subtle, more resinous, whilst the vetiver's herbal, slightly peppery character emerges to bridge the two. This is where the fragrance finds its most interesting phase: neither fresh nor deeply woody, but suspended between them, with that green accord adding an almost herbaceous quality that prevents staleness.
The vetiver persists as the dominant thread, increasingly earthy and slightly bitter, whilst both the lemon and cedar fade into whispers. What remains is pleasantly austere—a skin scent that smells less like fragrance and more like having brushed against cedar wood and damp earth, with only the faintest ghost of citrus on the periphery.
Scorza di Sicilia arrives as a study in restraint—a fragrance that treats its citrus not as a boisterous announcement but as the starting point for something considerably more contemplative. Sébastien Martin constructs this around the interplay between Calabrian lemon's bright, almost honeyed acidity and Virginia cedar's austere, pencil-shaving dryness, a tension that prevents the composition from settling into comfort. What emerges is neither a cheerful morning shower fragrance nor a woody chypre in the classical sense, but rather something caught between states: the cedar arrives early enough to immediately grey the lemon's brightness, whilst Java vetiver—earthier and more tobacco-like than its Indonesian counterparts—creeps underneath both, lending an almost herbal, slightly bitter foundation that keeps everything honest.
This is a fragrance for those who appreciate the visual of a still life more than a festival—think overripe lemons in a pewter bowl next to freshly sharpened pencils. It's intensely Sicilian in concept if not particularly Mediterranean in execution; there's an austerity here that speaks more to grey Tuscan mornings than sun-soaked coastlines. The green accord (76%) threads through everything like damp foliage after rain, preventing any sweetness from taking hold.
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3.4/5 (184)