I’ve always talked about this favourite of mine on the blog, but never written a dedicated review about Hermès Un Jardin en Méditerranée. This week, I found rumours that it might be discontinued, and after a panic-induced call to Hermès, I can tell you: no, it’s not discontinued. Also, you should totally give it a sniff.
Un Jardin en Méditerranée and me
When it was launched in 2003, I just did my masters, and perfume wasn’t really on my radar. I’d wear Chanel Allure day in and day out, my only bottle of fragrance. In 2006, though, I had moved to a bigger city. It wasn’t a good year for me – I was floundering, lonely and depressed. To cheer me up, on Saturdays I’d always go to the farmers’ market, and then browse through the beauty floor of the department store next to it. Jardin sur le Nil had been released already, but the Nile gave me associations of wide swathes of brown water, while Méditerranée brought me back to one of my happiest memories so far: my two visits to Rome a few years back. No city had ever awakened such a fervent love in me before: my love for history, stories and a life totally different to what I knew came together and didn’t leave me for a long time.
So, Méditerranée it was. I sprayed, sniffed, and fell in love. But, buying an expensive bottle of perfume with my meagre earnings? Common sense won, and I left. For the rest of my day, my nose was practically glued to my wrist. On Monday, after work, I went back and bought the bottle.
Méditerranée became my fragrance. I read Chandler Burr’s book The Perfect Scent (about Ellena and the inception of Jardin sur le Nil). It was my entry fragrance into the world of perfumery, fragonerds and fragheads.
There were years when I didn’t spritz Méditerranée even once. During the Covid years, I’ve found my love for it again. (There’ll be some deeply psychological reason for it, no doubt.)
The Jardins – an overview
Méditerranée isn’t actually the first fragrance perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena made for Hermès (that’s Amazone in 1989). It was also made before he became their first in-house perfumer (he was followed in 2016 by Christine Nagel).
The house of Hermès chooses a ‘theme’ every year. In 2003, it was the Mediterranean. Thus, the brief for the fragrance – with a twist. Leila Menchari, Directrice of Displays at Hermès, owned a house with a garden at the beach near Tunis, and the fragrance was to mirror the scents in this garden.
After the success of Méditerranée, Hermès decided to launch a whole collection of Jardins, and that’s what they’re still doing today. (Btw, in 2005, the house’s theme was rivers. I guess this year it’s either islands or Greece?)
- Jardin Sur Le Nil (2005)
- Un Jardin Apres La Mousson (2008)
- Un Jardin Sur Le Toit (2011)
- Le Jardin de Monsieur Li (2015)
- Un Jardin sur la Lagune (2019) – Christine Nagel
- Un Jardin à Cythère (2023) – Christine Nagel
Hermès Un Jardin en Méditerranée review
Official notes
- Top notes: Bergamot, Lemon and Mandarin Orange;
- Middle notes: Orange Blossom, White Nerium Oleander
- Base notes: Fig Leaf, Cypress, Red Cedar, Juniper, Pistachio, Musk.
It shows Ellena’s distinctive handwriting perfectly.
‘They asked him how he perceived Hermès. He (Ellena) said he found the products generous in the Mediterranean style, and pure and sophisticated in the Japanese manner.’
(Chandler Burr, The Perfect Scent)
I’ve never seen a better description of Ellena’s style of perfumery. His fragrances have some Southern exuberance, while always being sophisticated, and never loud.
The notes don’t plod on, one after another, but gently, nearly imperceptible, waft and weave around each other.
Ellena thinks the olfactory pyramid, the cliche glossy diagrams of top, middle and bottom notes (…) is “complete bullshit. I’m sorry, you add something to the bottom and you inluence the top notes, and when you first smell a perfume you smell everything, top to bottom, instantly.”
(Chandler Burr, The Perfect Scent)
Méditerranée is, to use the established nomenclature, a citrus-fig, but then, it’s not. It’s a diaphanous veil of citrus, gently placed over figs and super-smooth woods. It really fits the garden brief very well: you get the whole fig tree, and the garden surrounding it. And oh, that garden truly has everything the Mediterranean has to offer: lemons, those dark green, leathery leaves you see on Mediterranean shrubs, even a slight salt breeze in the air.
Don’t expect one of those sweet, creamy fig scents here. The first impression I get upon spraying is very green, nearly herbal. Then comes a bit of orange blossom, mixed with a fresh young fig that’s still quite green. I rather like this approach to a fig scent – it’s not a beachy scent at all, but it says ‘summer’ nevertheless.
Longevity & Sillage
As you might assume, its sillage is very modest, and longevity is so-so. It’s a scent that wears very close to the skin, and sexy in this way.
Availability & Price
50ml are €82/ $105. And yes, it’s very hard to find right now, but I called Hermès and they told me it’s just sold out in many locations right now, but NOT discontinued.
Please note that this post is not sponsored in any way. We buy products ourselves, with our own money, and don’t accept exchanging goods or money for reviews. We are completely independent, and our reviews reflect that.
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