The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
№16 PROSECCO arrived in 2017 as one of Valerie Nesterova's numbered releases. The composition sits squarely within the perfumer's catalogue, marked by its name and its place in the lineup. PROSECCO reads as an exercise in celebration translated through amber, sugar, and the aldehydic sparkle of champagne accord. There's no grand narrative about a vineyard visit or a vintage memory anchoring the concept. The scent does what its name promises: it captures a moment of toast, of clinking glasses, of that brief golden pause before the next sip. The opening carries a bright, effervescent character that feels lifted, almost weightless, before the warmer base notes begin to settle in beneath it. PROSECCO earns its place as the celebration piece, the one you reach for when the calendar says yes.
The interesting thing here is what amber does when you ask it to play champagne. Amberwood isn't a note you'd normally find near fizz or orange blossom, and the pairing creates an unusual tension that gives the composition its particular character. The sugar isn't decoration either. It's structural, acting as the bridge between champagne's effervescence and amberwood's resinous depth. Orange blossom does double duty, lending that honeyed floral edge that keeps everything from going syrupy.
The evolution
The first ten minutes feel almost like spilled champagne on a warm table, aldehydic sparkle cutting through, with a raw sugar sweetness underneath that registers before your brain catches up. Orange blossom rises within the first half hour, giving the composition a honeyed floral lift that softens the fizz. By the second hour, the champagne character has mostly evaporated, replaced by amberwood's resinous warmth. That's where PROSECCO stops being a novelty and becomes something more grounded in its drydown. The sugar never fully disappears, but it stops reading as sugar and starts reading as skin-warmth, like the ghost of sweetness left on a glass rim after the last sip. On fabric the next day, it survives as a quiet amber trace, less bubbly, more candlelit, a softer echo of the opening's brightness. It doesn't broadcast across a room.
Cultural impact
PROSECCO reads as a mood piece: confident, festive, slightly defiant in its sweetness. The composition rewards people who like their florals resinous and their sugar structural, those who want their sweet fragrances with backbone, not just sparkle. It is deliberately unsubtle about pleasure, wearing its celebration on its sleeve rather than hiding behind restraint. The numbered catalogue it belongs to reinforces that identity, anchoring PROSECCO as a specific entry within a larger lineup, one option among others, each composition carrying its own occasion and its own feeling.
