Unum Scusami Extrait de Parfum 100ml

Seventeen materials is a great deal for one bottle, and Filippo Sorcinelli Unum Scusami Extrait de Parfum 100ml, from 2020, uses them to build something far sweeter and fruitier than the atelier's usual register.

Plum leads, dark and stewed and slightly winey, and it is chased by lemon, bergamot and grapefruit, which between them keep the fruit from turning syrupy. Grapefruit does the most work there, bitter around the rind. Heliotrope is already present at the top, powdery with a soft marzipan sweetness, and it is the clue that this is heading somewhere comforting.

The heart is a sweet shop of a bouquet. Blackcurrant gives a tart, slightly green bite, ylang ylang a creamy richness, freesia a clean peppery floral snap, lily of the valley a cool dewy lift and rose the rounding. Sugar is listed too, and it does exactly what you would expect, pushing the whole middle towards confectionery rather than garden.

Six materials make the base and they are chosen to hold all that sweetness down. Amber glows, ambrette adds a soft seed like warmth, sandalwood and cedarwood supply cream and dryness in turn, patchouli grounds everything in dark earth, and musk closes the gaps. The finish is noticeably more serious than the opening promised.

At extrait strength this is dense, long lasting and best applied sparingly, one spray going considerably further than you expect. It suits cold weather and evenings. Filippo Sorcinelli has made liturgical vestments by hand since 2001, when he opened his LAVS workshop in the town of Mondolfo, and the Vatican has been among his customers. Perfume came in 2014. Gothic interiors, vestment cloth and the sound of an organ are the reference points he works from.