Gini Candles: the breath of the earth

It's well known I have a weakness for candles and the only reason I don't write more often about them is because testing a fragrance is easier than testing a candle. Unlike other home fragrances, the beauty of candles is you have to live with it. Once lit, it is like a fireplace that needs you to look after it and diffuses heat, light and fragrance. It makes good company if you enojy it on your own and adds a certain atmosphere if you're with someone. During the winter evenings I often enjoy burning candles while sipping a glass of wine, that's why during the days of Pitti Fragranze I got entusiastic when some friends passionate about scents and wine invited me to discover Gini Fragranze candles.

Speaking about good wine, Gini family has been producing wine with passion since three generations and has received international awards. The same devotion for the Soave region where the best grapes get their aroma is the spirit the young Francesco aimed to put in another pleasure for the senses. So while offering us a taste of their amazing recioto (what an orgasmic juice!), Francesco with genuine look and enthusiastic voice tells me how he "sit in front of the inFragranti Parfumeur equipe sharing big glasses of wine, memories and feelings" and in the end the outcome has been three olfactory atmospheres, three candles speaking of the identity and tradition of living in harmony with the earth: Contrada Salvarenza, Colle Foscarin and Campo Casanova.

The link with nature is strong also for the choice of materials: a good amount of natural essences and fine wax and wicks that burn without producing smoke. The simple packaging (unique con is the lack of a candle lid) strikingly draws a white Richard Ginori fine porcelain up to the olive green wax that liquifies looking like oil, the good one you can enjoy on a slice of fresh bread. That's why I liked them, because they bring me memories of when I was I child, of the simple things and the countriside with its rithms, colours and aromas.

The one I'm enjoying during these days is Contrada Salvarenza, maybe because it gives me light during the darkest time of the year. Actually it is described as "nature calling us to her after the long hibernation. It's time for the great awakening". I also find it very suited for Christmas time with its "white" and fresh notes of almond and cherry blossoms almost edible with a dry spicy-herbal aftertaste nicely playing with the duo immortelle-wormwood balancing the sweetness in a very elegant blend.

My dears liked very much Colle Foscarin , where "young guys climb the hill... They are the vigour of youth. The sun blesses them with its embrace. Under the shade of vines the girls take care of the kitchen garden... Like mom does, they put a basil leaf on their breast. They are the grace of innocence". The smell it gives off is directly taken from a fragrant kitchen garden in june: pennyroyal, sage, tomato and above all a sundrenched basil warmed up by a dry, almost woody clove as strong as the summer heat.

The one I liked at first smell instead was Campo Casanova because I'm completelly in love with patchouli. Its moist, sweetish and woody smell embodies the essence of autumn and here is used to render "naked skeletons of bark soaked in rain" while the fruity notes of grape and red berries, together with myrrh and a trail of smoke sketch the idea of a quite moment with a good book, Bach cello suites playing in the background and sipping young wine sitting by a flickering fireside with the smell of moist logs put to dry out.