Moëhr

As soon as I heard the incredible story behind Moëhr I realized that this would be one of the most exciting launches in Spitzenhaus history.

The Moëhr brand is deeply rooted in the luxury hospitality and culinary trade and takes us all the way back to the year 1881. But first things first.

1881 marks the turning point in the luxury hotel business as we know it today. That was the year that César Ritz – a Swiss man who had been taken out of school as a boy in the Canton of Valais due to laziness – was entrusted with the leadership of the Grand Hotel de Monte Carlo.

His ambitious goal: to radically rethink the very hospitality trade itself. Ritz implemented his vision of a new, modern luxury hotel experience, which he believed should be based on the combined expertise of a team of exceptional «craftsmen». As culinary director of the hotel he appointed his friend Georges Auguste Escoffier - a master chef who would go on to be the defining figure in French haute cuisine. He also engaged a master carpenter, a florist, a custom tailoring master, a shoemaker – and Swiss perfumer Nestor Moëhr. In other words, a «cluster of excellence» assembled for success.

Nestor Moëhr set up shop under the arcades of the Grand Hotel de Monte Carlo with a range of hairdressing services, and soon began creating fragrances for his distinguished guests as well. His excellent reputation as a perfumer quickly spread well beyond the confines of the principality.

Later, in 1898, when Ritz left Monaco to establish his famous Hotel Ritz in Paris, Moëhr would choose to remain in the little principality on the Riviera. The decision made no dent in his acclaim, and would ultimately lead to the founding of his own fragrance house, «La Parfumerie de Monte Carlo».

Later on, the abrupt closure of the Grand Hotel put the history of Moëhr on hold, a pause that would last 100+ years - until brothers Vincent and Nicolas Poylo appeared to awaken the brand from its Sleeping Beauty slumber.

Having grown up in Monaco with a direct personal connection to the former Grand Hotel de Monte Carlo (the family owns part of the property, which is no longer a hotel), the two were, in effect, part of the Moëhr story from childhood. The story held a particular fascination for the brothers, professionals in the fields of hospitality and haute cuisine. The brand idea was first sparked in 2023, followed by an extended research period before they finally founded Moëhr.

Vincent was a cook at the time, working alongside 3-star chef Mauro Colagreco of the Mirazur Gruppe. His sensibilities have been shaped by cuisine of the highest order, a factor that is firmly ensconced in the brand DNA of Moëhr. So it makes perfect sense that each and every one of the 6 perfume creations has a culinary character, in one way or another. In fact, the brothers like to refer to them as «gourmet fragrances».

Should that put you in mind of loud, commonplace sugary bombast, you’d be way off course. In fact, each of the creations beguiles with subtlety and elegance rather than a brash, strident silage. The fragrance collection is marked by a sort of recurring theme, something like a nod to the DNA of a classic eau de Cologne, but without ever seeming outmoded.

Moëhr entrusts the technical realization of the scents to the expertise of Mane – a French raw materials and perfume producer of international renown.  The company specializes in supercritical extraction processes in which liquid CO2 under high pressure is used to extract fragrance molecules from natural substances, gently and without applying heat. In addition, with Jungle Essence™ the French producer has developed a patented procedure for realizing unique, stabile raw materials for the creation of fragrances and aromas. The industry has embraced this procedure, which needs no petrochemicals, as a green alternative. It yields both natural aromas and fragrances as well as exotic and also completely novel types of scent. The result: precise and stable «blueprints» of the source material.

The years of research and collecting artifacts gave rise to a flacon design inspired by the aesthetics of «hotel silver». Zamak (a family of zinc alloys) was the material of choice for the cap, a reference to the old hotel bar counter, made of zinc plate. The glass flacons are hand made at a Venetian glass foundry. The finishing touch on the brand look comes courtesy of the calligraphic lettering of Mexican artist Esteban Fuentes de María.

Moëhr is made for connoisseurs seeking to make an anticyclical statement ­as a counterpoint to the trend towards loud, non-sustainable, often «faceless» creations..