Brioni Review – Michel Almairac; 2021

I’ve been thinking a great deal about Dior Fahrenheit lately, so perhaps it was inevitable that it would pop into my mind when I tried the new Brioni eau de parfum (the first of what the brand are presenting as a reintroduction of their fragrance range, created as part of the licensing agreement with the Lalique group.) But I don’t think the connection is merely the result of my overactive imagination. For one thing, both scents were composed by Michel Almairac (with Fahrenheit also being credited to Jean-Louis Sieuzac). And for another, you can unquestionably smell the ghosts of the Dior in the subject of this review. Indeed, I’d go so far as to say that the Brioni is the closest we might be able to get today to a mainstream recreation of the original Fahrenheit. 

The 1988 release from Dior is rightly considered to be one of the greatest masculines of all time. Inspired by Grey Flannel and featuring that famous, gasoline-fuelled, green violet leaf note, over a superb leather-vetiver base, it offered a compelling statement on the clash between the natural and the artificial, the liberated and the constrained, the heated and the cool. Sadly, for various reasons, its formula had to be tweaked, and in its current version, it no longer possesses the laser-beam sharpness that made it so striking and distinctive. 

I wonder if Almairac made a conscious decision to revisit it when working on the Brioni commission. Certainly, this new release features a prominent violet leaf note, and there do seem to be attempts within it to grasp at that wonderful petroleum weirdness. Pink pepper, amber and cedar (ie Iso E Super) are in evidence too (shades of the master’s own Gucci Pour Homme?) as is a suggestion of a sun-browned leather base. But this is 2021, and Brioni clearly have broad appeal in their sights. So cue: a hefty helping of Ambroxan and a host of other ambery woods.

To give the brand and the perfumer their due, this is by no means one of those risible ambery-wood monsters that continue to blight our perfumery shelves. Far from it. In fact, it’s a release with which Brioni should be quite pleased. But when you can smell a perfume straining for the greatness of its ancestors, you can’t help but feel sad – for a brief moment – at the thought of what might have been. Never mind. The past is gone (or is it on eBay?). If the twenty-and-thirty-somethings of today can’t wear the original Fahrenheit and they find that the language of Brioni resonates with them in some way, then I’m not going to complain. They could do much, much worse than this stuff.

Persolaise

[Brioni eau de parfum review based on a sample provided by the brand in 2021.]

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