I Profumi delle Cinque Terre

Few weeks ago I met Pier Carlo Pinotti, creator of the brand "I Profumi delle Cinque Terre" (Fragrances of the Cinque Terre). He wanted to show me his work, and so we went downtown for a drink and a chat.

The adventure of "I Profumi delle Cinque Terre" was born less than two years ago when the family’s pharmacy was about to celebrate 100 years of activity. Such an anniversary deserved a celebration to remain over time, and together with his wife they thought of creating a perfume for the occasion, to be sold in the pharmacy during the whole year. But then he got deeply into it, and chose to create an entire line, to be launched on the market. So Pier Carlo, a retired industrial engineer, set to start a completely new course of studies.
He stumbled upon this blog, he read my posts and your comments, picked up ideas, took suggestions. Then looked for a perfumer –Italian, better- to help him create what he had in mind and found Maurizio Cerizza (we talked about him here, remember?).

The output consists in four fragrances, a fruity, a flowery, an ozonic-marine and a green: Tentazione di Fico, Fiordaliso di Portovenere, Respiro di Risacca, Agave. The name of the line I Profumi delle Cinque Terre" is a tribute to this little corner of Liguria, which he and his family love so much, and all the fragrances of this line share the same freshness, an airy lightness I loved just because they really smell of Liguria. Not of “Liguria in August”, crowded and sweaty, but of “Liguria in April”, when the sun is getting warmer but the breeze is still fresh, the air is saturated with natural scents but not too much, just a touch of.

Fiordaliso di Portovenere is the flowery with a hint of spice (galbanum, violet leaves, rose, musk, vetiver) balanced and elegant, whose base notes are powdery with ambrette seeds; Respiro di Risacca is the ozonic, highly reminiscent of REM, but with fewer flowers and slightly more salt (I prefer it to Rem because it’s simpler and fresher, and this past month I used it very often); Agave is green, dry-minty and spicy, with a base of woods and musks. The Fig scent (Tentazioni di Fico) is the one I liked less because after a fig-fruit departure, thus sweet and caramelized, it turns to fig-milk, that bitter and dry-smelling white liquid bursting out from both the leaves and the fruit. Fruity-sugary to bitter-dry may be a fascinating journey between two completely opposite feelings, and though someone might like it just for this, it was not ok for me to wear. You may smell Maurizio Cerizza in this scents: he also worked for Calè Fragranze d’Autore; there are surely some raw materials (some woods, for example) with which he prefers working with and which you can trace in its works as a kind of signature. The bottle recalls those by L’Artisan Parfumeur but more slender, with an important golden top, and with a slightly colored base. It hit me (in fact I’m talking about it). This is Pier Carlo’s website, he wrote the texts on perfumes himself, out of passion, and although he must have made a major effort, which probably Press Officers will appreciate, it’s completely useless for us. So, let’s sniff.

I decided that I’ll mail decants to anyone who asks (yes, also abroad): I received a generous amount so let me know if you want them, both here or in private.