Pale green natural looking. Louche is very slow, creeping opaque thin swirls, not impressive. The color after water is a pale green opaque and thin. Aroma before louche was herbal, with alcohol and wormwood notes. After water the glass was a bloom of wormwood and herbal mix. The mouth feel was creamy but over taken by the alcohol tinge. The taste was of wormwood, with an herbal note with apparent anise. I enjoyed the anise fore and a slightly sweet minty note.
I was expecting a little more on aroma and louche, and overall quality. This absinthe has some definite anorexic qualities.

sampled thanks to a generous WWS member



Color: beautiful. Nice, clear, natural green. More saturated green than Trillium, and more saturated than I remember the Eichelberger, but you would not describe this as dark. Gorgeous and enticing.



Aroma (neat): The first thing that hit me was an aroma that seemed musty or earthy, wet dirt. Ainse is htere, and some grassy/herbal character, but the musty aroma is difficult for me to get past. There is a spirity/fruity alcohol component in the aroma, but it is nice. Not nearly as much "heat" as I was expecting from the high alc. content.



Louche: Everybody knows about the louche, my experience was no different. Slow to start, weak trails, and then a general haze develops. This was with a very slow drip of very cold water -- crushed ice and water dripped from a sport bottle. The completed louche is quite translucent with little or none of the milky/minty shades typical of a louched verte. Finished color is still attractive.



Aroma (after louche): The aroma expresses itself nicely during the louche; not "room filling", but it is escaping the glass and is noticeable without getting close to the glass during the louche. Anise and herbal character coming through more but I'm still picking up the musty character.



Flavor: The flavor is quite powerful, a surprise in contrast to the thin appearance of the louched glass. Herbal, on the vegetative side, with good anise and quite strong bitterness. With everything to this point being more extreme (beautiful color, strange aroma, poor louche), the flavor seems quite normal and pleasant.



Finish: Very nice, this is one where I found the anise and wormwood hang around and mingle for a while. So often I find the finish more "sequential", where flavors come and then fade, but this one was very long and complex, with anise, bitter wormwood, and other herbal flavors very nicely integrated.



Overall, quite a surprise and a bit of an enigma to me. Enjoyable to taste and analyze, and in the end I must say I like it, but it's a bit of an oddball. The unusual aroma and poor louche make it something that I'd probably frequently pass over if it were in the liquor cabinet, which is a shame, as the flavor and finish are really very nice.

Color - Light green and natural looking.



Louche - Thin. A very slow drip does improve it but it still didn't get where I wanted it.



Aroma (Before louche) - Upon first opening the bottle the alcohol (not surprisingly) dominated all else. After getting some air into it the spicy, herbaceous notes came forward.



Aroma (After louche) - These spicy herbaceous notes poured out during the louche. Not room filling but it makes it's presence known.



Flavor - I wouldn't quite call this an herbal bomb like the original batch of 1797, but it certainly maintains that crisp, herbaceous tonic character. This time around it has better balance as the flavors are more well rounded. I thought it was delicious.



Overall - Obviously a quality made product and among my favorites.

Having missed the first batch of 1797 to be produced, I wanted to make sure I got a bottle this time - and I'm very glad I did. Keeping in mind that this absinthe is supposedly from a very old recipe, when absinthe was more of a tonic rather than an aperitif, I was expecting something fairly medicinal and not very complex. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this absinthe has a lot to offer.



The neat color was a bright green. Louche is delicate and takes a while to develop properly. Make sure the water is very cold, and use a slow drip or you'll end up with a weak louche. At 3:1, I got a nice, opalescent louche with very complex aromas that filled the room -- anise, fennel, wormwood, and a bit of citrus.



The flavor is slightly medicinal and I can detect the wormwood quite easily. There seems to be a good balance of fennel and anise, and a bit of mint, spice and citrus. It also tastes a bit "green". The mouthfeel is round and full. This was a very enjoyable absinthe. One of the best I've had.

This absinthe has undergone a remarkable transformation from the original version. The remarkably complex spicy flavor is still there, but it's much more balanced, and smooth than its predecessor. There is no longer a metallic, or burnt edge, and the louche is fuller (although patience is needed, and I would a suggest somewhere around a ten minute drip to achieve a decent opalescent, but not really thick or creamy louche).



There is definitely more than a tangential resemblance between the Marteau Verte Classique, and this 1797...the unusual herb profile bears this out...the differences are the following...the Marteau is brighter, overall, but also a little sweeter on balance (befitting an ideal absinthe cocktail mixer), while the Roquette is a little drier (and more minty/bitter, reflecting its more wormwood-based origins). Bottomline, both are wonderful!