Nicocello

What gives Nicocello its unusual staying power is the wood and amber base holding the entire thing up. Fugazzi loaded the drydown with Ambrofix, Georgywood, Pepperwood, and Akigalawood, four modern aromatic materials that read warm, slightly mineral, and quietly woody. The Ambrofix anchors everything with its sun-warmed amber character, while Georgywood contributes a dry, almost papyrus-like mineral edge that keeps the drydown from going too sweet or too soft.

The evolution

The opening is almost violent in its clarity. All four Italian citruses hit at once, loud and unapologetic, the kind of moment that makes you look twice at the bottle because it does not seem possible that much lemon and blood orange could coexist without curdling into something one-dimensional. The acidity is immediate, and so is the lift from the bergamot and the green sharpness of cedrat cutting through the sweeter blood orange. Around the fifteen-minute mark, the pineapple surfaces underneath the citrus, sweeter than expected, more like a ripe fruit sitting in a bowl on a kitchen counter than a candy sweetness. The black pepper arrives shortly after, a dry warmth at the edges rather than a sharp sting, threading through the fruit like a quiet seasoning.