From the moment you pour this slightly pale mix of olive and peridot green into the glass, you can smell what I believe is the same grape base that Duplais Blanche uses. And this makes perfect sense, as the drink comes from the same distillery.

As you watch the drops of water land and splash, a lovely swirl of oil trails leads you through the transition of the absinthe into a milky green white with hints of refractive opal. This is a louche worth watching and waiting for.

Once the drink is ready, take some time to breathe in its aromas, as you will find a balance that fills the gaps missing in other bottlings from the same distillery such as Duplais Verte and Mansinthe. This tells you everything about the taste to come, which is a fine balance between the holy trinity of herbs, smoothed out by a slight vegetal note, which lingers on the tongue.

Maybe the colour could be deeper and the mouth feel a tad creamier, but then you might lose the qualities that also make this my new go-to absinthe for Sazeracs. Get a bottle of Marteau and fill a small atomiser with it for the perfect Sazerac, but once you've done that, take your time enjoying what I consider the finest absinthe to come out of the Matter-Luginbühl distillery to date.

Presentation (no points): Tall dark bottle with a classic looking label with symbolic touches provides a stately presence on my absinthe counter and should keep the light out to preserve the pleasant color. This review is based on a new, freshly opened bottle.



Color (5 points): Beautiful bright and natural green, clear and free of any sediment. This is what you want to see in a verte.



Louche (5 points): A really remarkable louche, comes in after a reasonably short period of time and slowly blooms to a rich and full opalescence that is very appetizing.



Aroma (4 points): Anise up front, with a subtle layer of wormwood neat, pleasant. After louche a note of citrus becomes a descant over the melody of the classic trinity of herbs.



Flavor (4 points): A very tasty absinthe, definitely on the sweet side, with plenty of green anise flavor and some grassy citrus highlights.



Finish (4 points): I really like the finish on this absinthe, the citrus lingers and just the slightest hint of numbness on the tongue prompt you to take another sip.



Overall (4 points): I wish this was readily available in the U.S., a quality absinthe that is very pleasing to drink. It has the classic flavors one would expect, with some nice overtones and a finish that lets you pick it out from a crowd. Wish I had ordered a liter.

Very nice clear green color. Great louche developing slowly and some time to complete. Good opalescence. Aroma shows balance with some citrus notes. Taste is balanced and very enjoyable.

This absinthe is unique. The profile is completely different from any I've tasted before. There is hardly any bitterness, just a touch to balance things out. I won't get into specifics because two other better trained palates have already weighed in on this. I'll give the cliff notes version... It's delicious.



The color was quite nice and natural looking. The louche thick with lovely oil trails, morphed into an opalescent version of it's original color. I was nursing my second glass to the point where it even began to get slightly tepid, and the louche still didn't thin out a bit.



The best thing about this absinthe to me is the finish. It has a candy-like finish, leaves a taste in your mouth so delightful that you don't want to eat/drink anything else to ruin it. Stayed with me for hours after my last glass. One of the best I've ever experienced in this regard.



Good stuff, well done Hiram.

I was very impressed with this absinthe. I had expected it to be on the lighter side, so I dosed it at 3:1...wow, what a beautifully balanced melange of herbs and spices greeted me! I tasted lots of good green anise, and quality fennel, but also coriander (which I love), and melissa, which really adds a refreshing citric quality. There seemed to be couple of ancillary herbs I recognized as veronica, and, perhaps, genepi, and the finish was laced with a nice, bracing minty wormwood touch, although a tad more would have been ideal.

Certainly not an absinthe leaning towards the bitter (in fact, I think the addition of sugar here would definitely obfuscate some of the lovelier subtle nuances), but there is enough balance to avoid crossing over into the realm of cloying.

The color is a lovely peridot green...not the deepest I've ever seen, but very vibrant, and natural, and the louche was certainly lovely, slow to form, and swirling, nice and thick at 3:1, with much retention of the original green color.

The aroma was particularly savory, and spicy, both before, and after the louche. Perhaps not room filling, but certainly easily detectable from several feet away, and incredibly pleasant. The taste matched the aroma perfectly, and the finish was quite long, and eminently satisfying.

Kudos, indeed, Hiram!