At the end of a memorable visit to the Dominican Republic, Robert Gerstner decided to commission a souvenir. He’d been fascinated by the aromas of cigars being rolled and boxed during a factory tour, so he asked his friend and traveling companion, the perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour, if he could bottle the scent.
“I didn’t really think there were any great tobacco fragrances out there,” Gerstner says, and he would know. For nearly 30 years he’s run Aedes, a New York City perfume shop that offers exclusive scents, including an in-house collection called Aedes de Venustas. The newest, Café Tabac, debuted in December and is the product of Duchaufour’s efforts. It’s named for the Big Apple’s long-shuttered supermodel hangout, but the scent is redolent of the DR’s key export.
Since then, a raft of houses have launched scents that are either directly evocative of, or otherwise inspired by, specific destinations—a trend that makes sense given our near insatiable thirst for visiting new places. “Locations are one of the main things fragrances stir up in you,” Gerstner says. “It just happens that you get inspired by traveling.”
Louis Vuitton Lovers: Virginia, U.S.A
Pharrell Williams asked Vuitton’s in-house master perfumer, Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud, to capture the energy of sunshine. The result—named in reference to Williams’s home state, Virginia (which, they say, is for lovers)—is a bright, lively blend of galbanum, cedarwood, sandalwood, and ginger.
Arquiste A Grove by the Sea: Lopud, Croatia
This small island in the Adriatic Sea has forests of pine, cypress, and some of the tallest palms in Europe. The scent, created with perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux, captures the sea air that blows through their leaves and fronds to combine with the crisp aroma of locally grown thyme, rosemary, and figs.
Perfumehead La La Love: Los Angeles, California
Consider this an olfactory ode to the City of Angels creatives who work as hard as they play. Perfumer Constance Georges-Picot’s gourmand concoction smells like a cocktail you could easily have one too many of, with boozy Cognac notes mixing it up with vanilla absolute, incense, sandalwood, and musk.
Memo Paris Cappadocia: Cappadocia, Turkey
Turkey is among the world’s foremost saffron producers, and the spice’s earthy, tealike scent takes center stage in this effort by nose Gaël Montero. He balanced it with sandalwood, benzoin, myrrh, and jasmine to create a warming scent that’s especially perfect for fall and winter.
Krigler Lindauer Löwe 8: Lindau, Germany
Bavaria’s answer to Capri, Lindau is a colorful island-resort town on the eastern edge of Lake Constance. Perfumer Albert Krigler loved it here so much that he dedicated a scent to the destination in 1908. His great grandson Ben recently re-released the juice—a combination of green tea, geranium, amber, and cedarwood—just this June.
