Essenza di Zegna (2003)
by Ermenegildo Zegna

Fresh, woody, classically-Italian scent. Not nearly as sharp as the "intense" version of this scent, but it gets the job done without fuss.

Clean, simple and pleasant; Essenza di Zegna is not unpredictable and is just plain nice to wear.

A slightly generic scent to my nose... of course seeing the current online pricing and that it is discontinued I see I sold my bottle about 5 years too soon lol... It is a safe casual or work scent IMHO... I wouldn't drop more than 40 dollars on it but to each his own. It does have a nice opening of citrus with a good dry down on musk and vetiver. I don't believe it lasted more than 5 hours on me so keep in mind it isn't a beastly scent.

Another light aquatic woody. This one starts off with a slight drying latex paint smell, combined with a lemony bergamot.

The cardamom introduces itself and makes one think that this may be going down a new path for this genre.

Sadly, the citrus fades quickly, along with (thankfully) the drying paint, leaving just the lightest whisp of unremarkable woods.

Nothing special, not bad, not good, jus run of the mill.

It will not be missed.

Essenza di Zegna perfectly shows what I would personally expect from a contemporary citrus-woody niche scent. I think of “niche” because it smells... different: it’s classy, cozy and versatile, but has just the right “twist” to smell creative and peculiar. Basically I would define Essenza a woody-exotic and slightly aquatic scent, with a cardamon-fruity twist and a thick, slightly damp musky base; it reminds me quite much of Fendi Theorema for Men, but smelling way more quality – deeper, thicker, smokier, more natural, far more refined. Say, something halfway Declaration and Theorema. With that myrtle accord which adds a touch of “Mediterranean exotism”, with its peculiar sort of leafy, musky, kind of “olive tree” flavour. Essenza smells so well blended it’s kind of hard to describe it, but I feel that “tremendous quality woody-exotic-spicy-aquatic fragrance” can sum this up quite well. Just a tad too much linear for me, but highly creative and elegant.

7,5-8/10

great fragrance very natural an ahead of his time..it just dosent get old..women looooove it an is always great when ur wearing a fragrance that hardly no one knows about..funny that people compared it to acqua di gio but way better when zegna was released but it seems armani him self was a big fan of essenza di zegna now he released acqua di gio essenza with the same perfumer of essenza di zegna an similar tones..but zegna is way Better