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09/20/2023
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Detour XV: Eaux de Gloire ..
Whoever says Eau de Gloire Cologne must also say Eau de Gloire, or vice versa, could that be the name of Parfum d'Empire HQ? But first things first - Eau de Gloire (2003) was Marc-Antoine Corticchiato's prelude to Parfum d'Empire. The fragrance was available as an eau de toilette for a long time before it was offered as an eau de parfum (2014) along with the majority of the range; for the company's 10th anniversary, there was a vintage edition designated as Cologne pour l'Hiver, and now, in 2023, for the 20th anniversary, Eau de Gloire Cologne. Originally, this version was to be released in the 'Napoleon year' 2022, but it also fits well in the following year.
Eau de Gloire - I could never tell the difference between the eau de toilette and the eau de parfum version - is one of Corticchiato's most classic works and has never been one of my favorites, or only partly, almost half and half, depending on your perspective: 50% of Eau de Gloire - the first half, so to speak - is to my liking, the remaining 50%, i.e. the finish, drydown, etc. less so or a little too dusty for me. The first part consists of a relaxed Mediterranean scrub accord, radiant in the evening sun; deeply aromatic, complex and polyphonic, citrus sparkles, immortelle here with light aniseed and tea-like shades, lavender, rosemary, cistus extract, herbal, refreshing and calming, all in all inviting, a very balanced and perfectly blended macchia cross-section. To fall in love with. So far so good: only this scene turns more and more into a full-blown leather chypre reminiscent of Hermès' Bel Ami (1986). Nothing reprehensible in itself, Bel Ami is one of the hits of the 80's, especially when it was still offered in the breathtakingly beautiful amber glass cocktail shaker with a Bakelite-like cap and, in matching colors, patterned cardboard packaging - one of the most coherent presentations of this decade, but never quite mine.
Admittedly, this duality suits Eau de Gloire, a fragrance that is also dedicated to Corticchiato's father, representative of all Corsicans (and Corsican women, although the Eau Suave (2005) was originally intended here?!) who had to emigrate in the 20th century to find social security elsewhere - a complex story, especially after the First World War, Corsica, its identity and the development of any infrastructure was consistently neglected by Paris. The reference to a leather chypre is perhaps fitting for these generations, as is the impression of a landscape, in the spirit of Bonaparte's bon mots, of being able to smell the island from the ship long before it appears on the horizon - a scene that even made it into an Asterix volume.
This is where Eau de Gloire Cologne and the power of dilution come into play. Not that Eau de Gloire Cologne is merely a lighter version of Eau de Gloire, no, I suspect this is more of a reconstruction, a re-engineering in which some ingredients have been replaced or renewed. I wouldn't be surprised if, as with the last Parfum d'Empire releases, the distillates used here were once again specially commissioned by the Acquarone family.
Similar to its predecessor, the cologne also plays with duality: here, an idiosyncratically bitter citrus note, slightly flavored by myrtle, at times with an orange tinge: Corticchiato can do citrusy things, Iskander (2006), Yuzu Fou (2008) and Azemour Les Orangers (2011) immediately come to mind, or more recently, the sophisticatedly clear Helios di Corsica (2018). The other half of the colognes consists largely of an upgrade of the aforementioned golden macchia accord. This is now also explicitly titled as such by the brand and not, as before, as a list of possible components. Certainly, the perfumer has rightly made a name for himself as a macchia expert over the years, and on top of that, these sparse, lush destinations are also becoming more and more 'en vogue' - in perfumes and elsewhere. Eau de Gloire is also exciting because it has anticipated many in-house trends. Even if my favorite macchia accord is probably hidden in the not-so-sounding Fougère Bengale (2007), the sequence from Eau de Gloire to Fougère Bengale to Tabac Tabou (2015) are stages of this development, before Corsica Furiosa (2014) and all the releases that have come under the Héritage Corse series lead far back to it. Like a prism, Héritage Corse refracted the Mediterranean light into a spectrum of meticulous studies of these terroirs, with more varied facets than just brown-gold.
Eau de Gloire Cologne follows on from this, the Bel Ami's melancholic foothills are now far dimmer, but not completely gone, the hesperidic aspects continue deep into the (short) course - and it seems as if the lighter construction, which also goes hand in hand with the cologne concentration in purely formal terms, almost intensifies the impression of a summer evening in the midst of aromatic undergrowth. If you ask perfumers why it is so difficult to depict real places, especially those in the open air, as fragrances, you always hear how microscopically small or low the ratios of measurable fragrance molecules to the surrounding volumes of air, space and atmosphere are. Less is more here, so to speak. Apart from the wonderful citrus start, it is perhaps what distinguishes Eau de Gloire Cologne, its dilution, the lingering in the implied, and the new interpretation of a whispered macchia accord. If you are looking for more aromatics and 'perfume' with leather-chypre references, you should confidently reach for the old Eau de Gloire, the lightweight version is no less exciting, different enough, and in its finer, modernized resolution also likeable. Bonne Anniversaire!
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