Mazzolari
Mazzolari
128 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Bitter almond strikes first with almost liqueur-like intensity, creating an astringent, slightly floral-nutty impression that catches you off-guard if you're expecting pure gourmand sweetness. Within moments, the spicy notes emerge—a dusting of cinnamon or clove that prevents any single note from dominating the initial impact, creating instead a complex, almost mulled quality despite the fragrance's clear sweetness.
The vanilla and honey rise to prominence, softening the almond's initial bite into something creamier and more powdery, like vanilla-infused honey cake dusted with cocoa. The spicy undertone persists, weaving through the sweetness with surprising restraint, whilst a subtle earthiness begins to whisper from beneath—the chypré accord establishing itself as a stabilising force rather than a pronounced character.
The base accord strengthens, and a slightly green, mossy quality emerges from the chypré, grounding what could have been pure sweetness into something with palpable weight and texture. The fragrance settles into a powdery amber-honey close, intimate and skin-like, with the almond's initial sharpness mellowed into soft, marzipan-like warmth that lingers without demanding attention.
Mazzolari's Alessandro is an unabashed embrace of the gourmand aesthetic, yet it refuses the saccharine trap that ensnares so many fragrances in this category. The bitter almond opening provides crucial counterbalance—a subtle almond liqueur astringency that prevents this from becoming mere dessert in a bottle. What emerges is a fragrance of deliberate contradiction: the creamy, almost marzipan-like sweetness of bitter almond merges with honey's golden warmth and vanilla's powdery embrace, creating something that smells like it could have originated in a patisserie run by someone with genuinely refined taste.
The chypré base accord is the revelation here. Rather than anchoring this as a typical amber-woods composition, it introduces a mossy, slightly green-tinged earthiness that grounds the sweetness with unexpected sophistication. This isn't merely candy; it's the scent of spiced honey cakes served on antique porcelain, where the furniture polish and aged wood furniture exert their own quiet influence on the air.
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3.9/5 (78)