If you ever lived on or near the water you know there is almost a separate boating culture that springs up around that body of water. I grew up in South Florida and my family spent large amounts of time on boats and was an active part of that milieu. It seemed like it wasn’t a weekend unless we had been out for a cruise. During the late 60’s the women protected their hairdos with scarves and wore sundresses. The men wore khakis and top-siders. It had a casual elegance but I never expected to find a fragrance which would capture that boating culture. I should have known better.

Marina Sersale and Sebastian Alvarez-Murena the founders of Eau D’Italie must also share my love of boating culture because it shows in their latest release Un Bateau Pour Capri (A Boat to Capri). They tapped Jacques Cavallier of Firmenich to bring this brief to life. M. Cavallier has made one of my favorite aquatic fragrances 2005’s Bvlgari Aqua pour Homme so he has shown a deft touch with this kind of fragrance. This perfume is meant to capture the good life on the water circa the 60’s and M. Cavallier does it beautifully.

This opens with a fruity floral mix of peach, peony, and freesia. The peach is warm and juicy it is flanked by the freshness of the two floral notes. It gives this opening the weight of a fresh sea breeze. The watery aspect of this fragrance comes courtesy of heliotrope; jasmine and rose support that. This makes Un Bateau Pour Capri feel more like a freshwater cruise than an ocean one. Then we get to the note which makes this perfume special for me. It is listed as “legno solare” which roughly translates to solar wood. I have no idea what that could be but what it is in this fragrance is the smell of sun warmed wood at high noon. It smells like hot teakwood detailing or a piece of driftwood stranded on the beach slightly hot to the touch with an almost ozonic woodiness. This note is what makes me really feel like I’m on a boat with my sunglasses. There is also cedar and musk in the base but it is this solar wood that makes this something I will wear again and again.

Un Bateau Pour Capri has average longevity and above average sillage.

Those boating expeditions of my youth taught me the value of casual style. Un Bateau Pour Capri is a fragrance full of casual style. M. Cavallier has made something as easy and stylish to wear as khakis and top-siders. Anyone else up for a cruise?

Disclosure: This review was based on a bottle provided by LAFCO NY.

–Mark Behnke, Managing Editor