Appearance: A clear dark and heavy yellow. Very topaz and a bit dead leaved.

Louche: Thick and milky while retaining lots of color but surprisingly hued. Not opaque but definitely thicker than perfect.

Aroma: Coriander, and as expected vanilla jump out at me first. Star anise and an upfront wormwood play a bit with a mild citrus note. Menthol tone is in the background.

Flavor: As expected this is strong and herbaceous. Star anise is heavy with coriander spikes. The vanilla smoothness plays a nice role but it's not as smooth as one would expect. Thankfully the mentholated tone is further in the background.

Finish: Vanilla hits up-front and a decent sweetness shows up that is spiked with the spice tone. There is an interesting astringency on the side of my tongue as well as a mentholated background note.

Overall: While the barrel aging seems to have improved this one it still suffers the flaws of what was put into the barrel. A few of the defects have been aged out but not completely. Maybe give it another year in the barrel?

Note: I did this as a before/after with the non-barrel-aged L'Enjôleuse, so may be more comparative than standalone.

Appearance: There isn't a noticeable difference in appearance from the barrel-aging, and it still appears to be a deep fuille morte.

Louche: Yellow-green and overly creamy, but it has some glowing rust and amber reflections that were certainly not present before.

Aroma: There's a bit of pie spice and pleasantness, and it's not overwhelmingly anisey, but it still has some substantial camphor notes punching through.

Flavor/Mouthfeel: To me, this tasted extremely soapy. It had very sour, mentholated flavors and a somewhat dusty taste...still a big anise presence. It certainly FEELS like there's some vanilla flavors present, but it's hard to detect the flavor too well.

Finish: There are some bad throat sensations to go with the juicy/mouthwatering and sour sensations...not in a pleasant way. It's a bit more of a salival assault. There is some hint of oak here, but not much.

Overall: Again, I'm not quite sure why this absinthe is this way...barrel-aging would have me hope for smoothness and some vanilla notes, but this is just more mentholated and harshness.