BUD to BOTTLE

Joseph Mul's Chanel farm in Grasse is an extraordinary place. It is where fragrant jasmine flowers are grown specially for perfumery, and where Chanel No. 5 was born.

- AMELIA CHIA

The air in the charming town of Pégomas hits different. Situated at the first hills of Grasse in the south of France, the wind that whipped lightly through my hair at the break of dawn was pleasantly crisp but humid, leaving a familiar layer of moisture on my skin. The scent of jasmine is unmistakeable as I wander through the fields dense when stillness prevailed, and delicate when a breeze sailed past. It is in these favourable Mediterranean weather conditions that Chanel grows its key ingredients-May rose, geranium, iris, tuberose and jasmine-for its legendary perfumes.

A lone stone house, the bastide, lies in the distance; the cavernous interiors swathed in a quintessentially neutral palette of beiges, blacks and whites. Outside the bastide, bicycles fixed with Chanel baskets are lined up in a neat row. The time is 8.30am and the harvesters make a colourful group out among tufty bushes, picking each jasmine off its branch with great precision that comes with years of experience. Some harvesters are plugged into music, others are humming softly and the rest chattering among themselves-armed with wicker baskets, which keeps the flowers well-aired. They huddle neatly in a selected area on the 30-hectare farm belonging to Joseph Mul and his family, a partnership that has been in place with Chanel since 1987.

Fabrice Bianchi, Mul's son-in-law, now runs most of the farm operations. He takes me on a slow walk through the fields, encouraging me to examine and sniff the jasmine flowers, a harvest that runs from August to October yearly. Mul runs a tight ship on the farm-the picking only happens from 7am to 1pm before it gets too hot, as this is also when the flowers are most fragrant.