Borsari 1870
Borsari 1870
888 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Green mandarin's petitgrain-sharp bitterness collides with cardamom's camphorous spice, whilst green apple provides an almost cider-vinegar tang that stops the sweetness from cloying. There's something faintly chlorophyll-laden beneath it all, like crushed stems and bruised fruit rather than the polished sweetness you'd expect.
Orange blossom emerges with its indolic, slightly soapy richness, but nutmeg's dry, dusty warmth and lavender's aromatic bite create an oddly medicinal accord. That curious earthy-vegetal quality intensifies here, as though something organic is decomposing beneath the spices—mushroomy, damp, strangely compelling.
Tonka and amber form a plush, resinous cushion with proper depth, their combined vanilla-coumarin sweetness finally dominating. The leather adds a subtle tactile quality—smooth, slightly waxy—whilst a ghostly earthiness continues to hover at the edges, refusing to disappear entirely.
Giacinto is an oddball—a hyacinth fragrance that's forgotten it's meant to be floral. Instead, Borsari 1870 has conjured something peculiarly baroque: a spiced apple tart sitting on a leather desk in a gentleman's club that's been overtaken by creeping greenery. The opening is all restless energy, with cardamom's eucalyptus-tinged bite slicing through green mandarin's bitter oils whilst green apple adds a crisp, almost cider-like tartness. It's sweet, certainly, but there's an unsettling vegetal quality lurking beneath—something damp and verdant that refuses to play nice with the gourmand elements.
As it develops, orange blossom attempts to assert some floral dignity, but the nutmeg has other ideas, its dusty warmth tangling with lavender's herbal-aromatic character in a way that feels more apothecary than perfumery. There's an earthy, almost fungal quality threading through the heart—that mysterious "infestation" note manifesting as something darkly botanical, like soil beneath a conservatory bench.
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3.9/5 (211)