Villa Nellcote by 19-69 - Sex, Drugs, and Rock N' Roll

The year was 1971. The Vietnam War raged on. Hippie culture had reached its apex. Woodstock had happened a couple of years before. Rock music was king and the drug culture permeated the creative lifestyle of the musicians. The Rolling Stones had to leave England or submit to a 93% tax rate so in the spring of 1971 they reluctantly made their way to the south of France for a two year pilgrimage. It would make a romantic bohemian story to say they all lived together in a big hippie house party at Villa Nellcote to produce the next Rolling Stones album, Exile on Main Street. The truth was a bit messier. Keith Richards had rented Villa Nellcote to live in with his paramour Anita Pallenberg and the other members of the band were scattered from Grasse to Arles. The grandeur and privacy of Villa Nellcote, located on the ultra-exclusive Villefranche-sur-Mer peninsula in the Cote d'Azur, made this the natural place for the Stones to gather and create music. There wasn't a recording studio nearby so the chateau's dank basement became a makeshift studio.

For a fragrance dedicated to the memory of a significant summer of debauchery and decadence at the Villa Nellcote, the opening is fairly sunny and a touch soapy. The perfume Villa Nellcote opens with the citrus freshness one would picture if standing on the balcony, looking at the expanse of cerulean blue water and the sunlit blue skies above. There is a watery effect that feels like breathing in fragrant sea air. Top notes of grapefruit, bergamot, lemon, and lemon flower bring on the sunshine. Elemi oil adds to the lemony tang but adds a deeper woody, peppery note. But wait! Underneath all this sunniness, I can already smell the mossy undertones which add a bit of mystery and formality to Villa Nellcote. The more formal notes seem to reference that this is, after all, an impressive French chateau with a somewhat storied history. It had been occupied by Nazi forces during WWII and it is located on what is possibly the most expensive real estate peninsula in the world. But in 1971 Keith Richards was renting Villa Nellcote for $2500 a month and it became a scene of partying, extensive drug use, and rampant creativity.

The villa was surrounded by lush and abundant gardens and the scent must have been a backdrop to the languid life that took place while the Stones were in residence.The heart of the fragrance is made up of floral notes but they are subtle and come across as aromatics rather than big florals. This aspect reminds me of some of the Chanel colognes. The green note of violet leaf penetrates and adds a dryness and slight bitterness to the fragrance. Floral notes of rose petals, jasmine, magnolia, and osmanthus are background noise, like walking past a garden but not discerning any one note. There is also a black tea infusion which I can't specifically discern.

"Upstairs, it was fantastic, like Versailles," said Keith Richards. "But down there, it was Dante's Inferno."

The beautiful sea views, the glitter of the jewel like coast, the magnificence of the 18th century mansion, these are all reflected in the lightness and sophistication of the opening of Villa Nellcote. But the actual recording work took place in a dank wet basement, plagued by dripping ceilings and power outages. The base notes in the perfume are cabreuva (a wood scent, I had to Google), cedarwood, patchouli, white amber, musk, moss, and guaic wood. These darker notes still wear gently and aromatically, but the moss does give the vibe of a dank cellar which was rumored to have been a difficult place to record.

www.Madame.lefiguro.fr

I was a bit frustrated testing this fragrance because my sample was in a little dabber and this is a fragrance that just begged to be sprayed. I felt like dousing myself in a spray of the slightly retro, cooling sunshine and moss scent. I liked the sophistication not always found in a citrus scent, a citrus with a veneer of French chic and sophistication that feels a bit dressy and polished. There is a slightly bitter green chord which to me signifies the decadence of this specific time and place. I like the aromatic cooling scent and I particularly like the mossy accord that lends a gentle chypresque feel. I do wish the scent was a bit stronger on my skin. It seemed to become fairly quiet only a couple of hours in. However, there was still a whiff of the mossiness the next morning when I woke up, albeit very close to the skin. This is a citrus with a little extra. I can picture a man or woman wearing this for a polished sophistication to present a cool calm against the heat of summer. Because of the mossy note I imagine this would also be a citrus that would transition well to cooler weather. I liked Villa Nellcote better each time I tried it. I wasn't initially wowed, but am to the point now I would like to own it.

The Swedish brand 19-69 was founded by Johan Bergelin and each scent is inspired by a cultural event, an era, or a setting. All the scents are suitable for wear by either gender. Bergelin says he chose the name 19-69 because, "The year 1969 represents an era of freedom, tolerance, and counterculture. It is also the year I was born."

**Apologies for lack of French punctuation marks. If anyone knows how to get them on blogspot format, please let me know!

The black and white photos are by photographer Dominique Tarle who lived in the Villa for a time, memorializing the moment with photos. The sample was purchased by me from Luckyscent.