For several years, I’ve been mourning the discontinuation (and disappearance) of a favorite fragrance, and I’ve searched high and low for it. A Perfume Detective is on the case. (I won’t reveal the perfume’s name till I secure every bottle remaining on the planet. Yes, greed!) Last summer, in Padova, Italy, I smelled a fragrance that was the closest I’ll probably ever come to my beloved, but discontinued, perfume — unless it’s reissued — but I could not get the name of the fragrance since the two people I smelled it on got lost in the crowd: a beautifully dressed woman walking her two dachshunds (also nicely appointed) and a man scurrying by my table as I had lunch at an outdoor cafe. I shared the pain of these close encounters with lots of people and one of those people, a Now Smell This reader in Europe, Dusan, said he would keep a nose out for the fragrance after I described it to him. I made one assumption about the mystery fragrance since I smelled it on a man and a woman in the space of a few hours: the scent must be new, circa spring/summer of 2007. About a month or so ago, Dusan recommended I sniff Courvoisier’s L’edition Imperiale; he felt it came close to the descriptions I gave him of the discontinued fragrance and the Padova perfume…
