There are fragrances you admire, and then there are fragrances that take you somewhere. Bottega Veneta’s new Alta collection is composed of ten scents, each weaving an ingredient from Italy with one sourced from elsewhere in the world. Yet after smelling the entire collection, it was not necessarily the clever pairings that stayed with me. It was the memories they unlocked.
Alta marks the next chapter in Bottega Veneta’s fragrance story. While the House’s inaugural collection was rooted in Venetian heritage, Alta looks towards Italy as a whole, exploring different moments of the day and states of mind through contrasts of lightness, warmth and nocturnal richness.
The concept is called the “Intrecciato duo”, a nod to Bottega Veneta’s signature woven leather. In each fragrance, two ingredients from different parts of the world are brought together. It is a beautiful idea, but fragrance is always deeply personal. Of the ten, four became my clear standouts: Ricordami, Moment After, Bare Morning and Balliamo.
Ricordami
Ricordami was an immediate favourite. Built around a stracciatella accord, its milky vanilla and chocolate notes give it the sweetness of Italian gelato, while the French oak adds depth and stops it from becoming too sugary.
On my skin, it feels delicious but grown-up – very sweet Italian ice cream served with something darker and more sophisticated underneath. It has all the comfort of a gourmand, but the oak gives it structure. This is the scent in the collection I kept wanting to return to.
Moment After
My other favourite is Moment After, a warmer and more sensual composition built around Madagascan vanilla and leather. It is richer than many of the fragrances in the collection, but it never feels heavy.
There is something incredibly tactile about the pairing. The vanilla is smooth and warm, while the leather gives it depth and a slightly darker edge. It feels like a memory left on the skin after someone has gone — intimate, familiar and difficult to forget.
Ricordami and Moment After were the two fragrances I immediately knew I needed in my collection. My signature scents tend to be built around almond, vanilla and amber — deeper, sweeter notes that I instinctively gravitate towards. Ricordami’s creamy gelato sweetness, grounded by French oak, and Moment After’s Madagascan vanilla wrapped in leather both feel entirely at home in my fragrance wardrobe. They are not simply my favourites from Alta; they smell unmistakably like me.
Bare Morning
Bare Morning triggered one of the most immediate memories for me. Its Italian talco accord took me straight back to my grandmother, fresh sheets and mornings in the village in Cyprus.
The powdery softness of the talco is paired with Oceania sandalwood, creating something intimate, clean and comforting rather than overly sweet. It smells like sunlight coming through a window and freshly laundered sheets being folded nearby. The connection was instant. It reminded me that nostalgia is not always found in the grandest moments; sometimes it lives in the quiet rituals we barely noticed at the time.
Balliamo
Balliamo pairs lush Italian white fig with American cedarwood. The fig reminded me of my garden in Cyprus, where its scent will always carry a sense of nostalgia.
Together, the fig and cedarwood evoke a warm summer evening. For me, fig will always smell like the early evening walking through fig trees with the heat beaming down, and Balliamo captures that feeling without becoming too literal.
Montebello also brought back a flash of an Amalfi trip, where there seemed to be sorbet waiting on every corner. Its blood orange and neroli have that same bright, cooling quality — the olfactory equivalent of citrus melting on the tongue in the Italian sun. It did not stay with me quite as strongly as my final four, but the association was immediate.
The remaining Alta fragrances complete the journey through different moods of Italian life. Always Now brings together Italian basil and vetiver Bourbon essence from Madagascar; Slow Rise pairs late-summer roses with French clary sage; Night Sounds deepens into Italian saffron and Vietnamese benzoin; Velvet Steps brings together syrupy Italian plum and Spanish labdanum; and Crepuscolo contrasts Fior di Sale with South Asian oud.
Not every fragrance triggered something in me, and I think that is part of the point. Memory is selective. A note that leaves one person untouched can open an entire world for someone else.
The bottles themselves translate Bottega Veneta’s signature Intrecciato weave into sculptural glass, reinterpreting its diagonal rhythm. Made using recycled glass, each refillable bottle is finished with a wooden cap and gold-finished ring, with 50ml and 100ml formats available.
Alta is a collection to experience slowly. On paper, it is a study in contrasts and ingredients drawn from across the world. On skin, it becomes something much more personal. For me, it became Cyprus, my grandmother’s fresh sheets, the sweetness of Italian ice cream and the warmth of vanilla against leather.
And perhaps that is the most compelling thing a fragrance can do: not simply smell beautiful, but give you a place to return to.
The Alta collection starts from £170 (50ml) and £230 (100ml), refills also available.
Travel cases are £190 in gold-finished metal, featuring the signature Intreccio motif. Designed to house 15 ml of any Bottega Veneta perfume.
