It's a pretty chrysoberyl, just a bit more yellow than green. There's no haze but there are a bunch of black specks of particulate. The aroma is awesome. Rich, honeyed, balanced with no herb standing out. It's purfumey with some mintiness.

The louche is quick and thick. The colour afterward is milky jade and has a fair amount of texture. Water brings forth spiciness in the aroma and enhances the mintiness and anise. There's a bit less honey.

The absinthe is very sweet anise and minty wormwood in harmony. There's a hint of cuminy funk but it's nothing distracting. A bit of sassafras and earthy fennel. A bit murky, tastes like the smell a spice cabinet. Very homey.

There's a long, numbing finish full of floral wormwood. Some mild saltiness appears and contributes a bit of oceanic character in the end.

I'd recommend this to anyone. The balance and smoothness of it makes me wonder how it will be if left to age for ten years. Or a hundred. It already tastes like it has had the benefit from a good deal of aging.

Color: Nice Peridot green with hints of yellow.

Louche: Nice trails and a decent build, but a tad light for me when finished. I might have received one of the earlier batches though. Apparently later batches have a thicker louche.

Aroma: Crisp, alpine freshness. Extremely clean and inviting.

Flavor: a great representation of the style. Not too overexertive in any certain area. A great balance.

Finish: well balanced and mild

Overall: A wonderfully light, feminine absinthe. Great for a hot day. But I'd drink it anytime.

Color
Neat, the color is a light medium yellow/gold tinged green. Sparkling, flawless clarity and unquestionably natural looking. Louched, the overall tone is that of creamy light celadon with gold/amber highlights. Ample translucence lights it up nicely, and there is a subtle opalescence of whitish blue at the edges and meniscus, and some interior fire under good light.

Louche
Good thick cascades (rather than trails) with pretty refractions. Clouding on the bottom sets up at about .5/1, top layer shortly thereafter. The layering here is not as defined as the most impressive louches I've seen, but lovely nonetheless. Make sure your water is very cold for this.

Aroma
Neat, very, very clean anise/fennel with herbal background. Louched, WOW!... start by paying a lot of attention. The balance here is such that one must really dig to find the individual components. They are present and detectable. The fruity, round combination of the anise and fennel lays down a solid foundation for the wormwood, pontica, and hyssop to come up front slightly and really sing. A little citrus, flowers, and spice on backing vocals.

Flavor
Like the nose, an attack of very round anise and fennel. Slightly minty wormwood then takes the lead augmented by some spice and citrus. If you want to get that "baby powder" thing from hyssop, try this. Nice creamy mouthfeel, but not overdone... just right. Again, following the nose, very balanced, very clean.

Finish
At first the anise/ fennel combo increases just a little to a nice spicy prickle, and then the "baby powder" creeps. The finish is very long, and as it persists, there is a subtle growing tension between the anise/fennel and the wormwood. There is absolutely no drying and "pull" that is so prevalent in other absinthes. The "juiciness" of this finish could have me drinking this all night.

Overall
So clean, so balanced. Such a well integrated personality. Seamless nose, palate, finish. Not the most wildly complex I have had, but sometimes more is just more. Everything this does, it does so well. Recently, I tasted this first at the DUNY tasting in NYC where there were several top-notch absinthes being shown. It was equaled, perhaps, by a couple in differing styles but, in my opinion, it was exceeded by none.

1/30/10 Revisit - Yeah, it's a tough job, but someone has to taste this from time to time. I sit here shaking my head, smiling, and awestruck. I just never get over how good this stuff is. As I do these "revisits", I always form impressions of each review category, in order, and then read my original comments to see how it all squares. I changed one word and I moved one coma, for grammatical correctness. In the categories that didn't score 5 (Color and Louche), I consider both to be more than adequate, given the style. In the categories that really count with me, for any beverage, (Aroma, Flavor, Finish), the 5s are so strong as to be without reservation. Therefore, I am changing my previous rating of 4 for "Overall" to a 5. There are other absinthes where I considered changing the "Overall" to a 5, but upon revisit, I did not. This is one where my first instinct, back on 5/09/09, was to award that 5, but I did not, at the time, to keep it consistent with the fact that I had never done so in any review. This is only the second 5 in that category I have ever awarded in 23 reviews. And from what I read and hear about recent production, I can't wait to revisit this again. Congrats Marc... a true masterpiece.

Done with a 1 ounce dose, diluted 3/1, 3.5/1, and 4/1 and no sugar.

Pacifique 5/06/09, 5/08/09, 5/09/09, 1/30/10
All evaluations had consistent notes.