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Color: A lovely crystal-clear peridot, Natural and gem-like. When louched, an attractive faint green with yellow and copper highlights.

Louche: The thickness of the louche is just right. Strong winding trails and nice layering, with a steady well-paced build. Distinct thunderous rolling clouds of smoke. Wonderful opalescence and color.

Aroma: A delicious aroma; clean and fresh, no strong nose of alcohol. Mainly wormwood with anise behind. The herbal elements and light spice open up nicely during the addition of water.

Flavor: The flavor is delicious; High quality and well-balanced trinity wrapped in a light pepper, spice and citrus with clear floral elements. A strong personality with wonderfully buffered edges. The grape base is simply wonderful. It IS a wormwood forward absinthe; if you prefer a bit more anise, you may want to try Authentique, also from Pernot.

Finish: A superb layered finish that builds, lingers, unfolds, then fades slowly, leaving a slight citrus tingle at the back of the mouth. One of the very best finishes I've experienced.

Overall: This absinthe takes a classic profile and adds in a floral and herbal personality that makes it very enjoyable. It's a great way to sample a quality wormwood.

Coloring is quite pretty as a standard peridot - absolutely proper and traditional. The aroma and taste of Pontarlier wormwood is present and accounted for in a big way... absolutely identifiably Emile Pernot absinthe - powdery and floral. Very, very well balanced with quality ingredients. Delicious. Louche is quite nice - but easy to over water. Best at 3:1 / 3.5/1 as ABV is 56%. Anything higher and you'll be sorry!

This is one absinthe that you really have to pay attention to since it is so very fragile in preparation. Initially, I disliked it as it appeared quite plain to me in terms of flavor - but this is due to my inexperience with the brand and incorrect tempering. It has grown on me quite a bit over time and I now find it to be a wonderful absinthe.

Appearace was typical of an EP product. Perfect peridot, crystal clear. Very clean and practically inviting the water to come in.

Louche was a beauty to behold in the beginning. Try just a splash from a carafe and watch the show. Interweaved threads swirl slowly back and forth in the light green absinthe for probably close to a minute. Mezmerizing to watch. By 1/1 becomes fully clouded.

Aroma of the Berthe neat is vanilla, anise and powdery with the very nice wine base showing through. With water this absinthe opens up into beautiful herbal bliss. Definitely an Emile Pernot product.

Flavor Is perfectly blended. That punchy Pontarlier wormwood bites you on one cheek and kisses you on the other. With a sweet floral softness close behind. Nice summery absinthe. Seems to my tastes just a little bit lighter absinthe than the Vieux Pontarlier. Very nice though.

Finish is lightly sweet and mouthwateringly pleasant. Like chewing a stick of Wrigley's DoubleMint Gum.

Overall a very drinkable absinthe with all the elements in right proportion. Can't go wrong with Big Bad Berthe. Holds it's own among others. Diluted at 3/1 served me best.

The Berthe de Joux is an absinthe which I can't pretend I didn't receive with some level of expectation, based on its glowing early reviews. Nonetheless, here is my objective review.

The color was acceptable, though not exceptional. I found it to be a composite of green with a strong citrine yellow overtone. All in all, it was fine, but not perfect.

Likewise, the louche was active, but rather short-lived. Again, it certainly didn't set the bar for the category, but neither was it disappointing.

The aroma and flavor are both categories where the BdJ's uniqueness comes into play. The aroma is noteworthy for sure, being far more flowery than anything else which I've experienced. It was nonetheless balanced, but I found the profile to be of narrow appeal, meaning that it would be quite welcome on a warm spring or hot summer day, but certainly not an everyday favorite.

As for the flavor itself, it took me a long while to warm up to it. Fresh out of the new bottle, I found it to be skewed heavily toward an aromatic floweryness, but as the open bottle aged a bit, it mellowed out into a nicely-balanced absinthe in which the fine wormwood was finally able to emerge.

Overall, while the BdJ wasn't able to live up to the gargantuan expectations which early reviews imbued it with, it's still a fine absinthe.

I am afraid I have to buck the trend on this one.

La Berthe de Joux is very pretty. It pours a lovely peridot green, and louches to an attractive jade, with all the usual visuals. Perhaps the louche is a trifle thin, but not enough to penalize. The aroma before water is pleasant: herbal and fresh, with a bracing tonic scent from the alcohol.

After that first impression, however, I found it rather disappointing.

Aroma, flavor, and finish are all dominated by an intense peppery flavor that tends to obscure the anise and wormwood. This comes as a great surprise to me, as I generally love Emile Pernot's products (including the controversial Roquette 1797). Generally, however, Pernot can be counted on to produce a balanced (or at least nuanced) product. This one lacks subtlety.

Overall, I think it shows promise, but I would rather drink Vieux Pontarlier, the Roquette, or Doubs.

UPDATE: This absinthe has improved considerably since I first opened the bottle...more than I have previously seen with any other brand. While the flavor remains a bit one-dimensional, with "white pepper" dominating all other flavors, it has mellowed a bit and I find I'm enjoying it more. Accordingly, I raised the rating on flavor from 2 to 3.

This is still my least favored offering from Emile Pernot, but overall it will do.