Xerjoff Torino

Every year, Xerjoff releases one fragrance under the Torino name, a tribute to the Italian city where the house was founded. The 2020 edition, Torino, is a Parfum that takes a warm, gourmand direction few would anticipate from a niche house better known for saffron-heavy orientals and rich musks. It reads less like a summer cologne and more like a confident cooler-weather statement: bright on the surface, creamy and decidedly woody underneath. Perfumer Chris Maurice signed the composition, placing it in the Xerjoff Shooting Stars collection, a series of annually released limited editions. Aromatica carries the Xerjoff Torino decant in Bangladesh in all available sizes.

Fragrance Notes

Top: Brazilian Orange

Heart: Black Pepper, Neroli

Base: Guaiac Wood, Bourbon Vanilla, Haitian Vetiver, Caramel

Full note breakdown on the Xerjoff official site.

The Scent

Brazilian orange leads with genuine brightness, more juice than zest, and a pulpy sweetness that separates it from a tart citrus cologne. The opening feels generous and ripe. Black pepper arrives quickly, adding a dry, prickling heat that cuts into the orange and keeps the fruit grounded rather than syrupy. Neroli brings a white-floral, slightly soapy character that lifts the composition and gives the early minutes a clean, cologne-like clarity layered on top of the fruity sweetness. This trio divides opinion clearly. The neroli can read as crisp aftershave freshness, lending a refinement that separates it from a typical citrus gourmand, while the pepper-neroli pairing surprises given how deep and dessert-like the base becomes. As the orange burns off through the first twenty minutes, the balance shifts firmly toward warmth. Guaiac wood emerges as a quiet, slightly smoky woodiness that gives the composition structure without demanding attention. The transition from the citrus-spice opener into this woody underpinning is gradual but distinct, the pepper's dry heat softening as the wood's gentle smoke takes its place. Bourbon vanilla builds steadily and caramel follows close behind, so that by the mid-dry-down Torino has fully transformed from bright and spicy into something rich and dessert-adjacent. These two sweet base notes unfurl in slow sequence rather than arriving together, giving the dry-down a sense of movement even as the fragrance quiets and turns skin-close. The Haitian vetiver is doing important work here, contributing a faint earthy, rooty dimension that cuts through the sweetness and prevents the caramel-vanilla accord from becoming cloying. The vetiver can read more prominent on warmer skin; on cooler skin, the vanilla and caramel tend to dominate.

By the final dry-down, what remains is a warm, skin-close woody gourmand: orange and pepper are long gone, replaced by a cozy caramel-vetiver base that wears quietly and close.

When to Wear

Autumn and winter evenings are where Torino earns its keep. The warm, gourmand character suits dinner out, a drinks gathering, or cooler-month occasions where you want something that feels substantial rather than sheer. It sits naturally among the fall and autumn picks at Aromatica, where the air turns and heavier compositions come into their own.

Who Is It For

Drawn to sweet, warm fragrances with real complexity behind them, and wanting niche-quality materials rather than a generic vanillic gourmand that could have come from any designer shelf, this is the wearer Torino is built for.