This is my blind tasting review from September, 2008. No sugar, carafe pour, tasted the same night as the blind sample of La Clandestine. Before that evening I had tasted Lucid, Kubler and Leopold Verte, #s 8 & 10.

Color: Light green with a tint of brown. Pleasant, natural-looking. After louche, a yellowish tinge to the opacity.

Louche: Billows, comes on fast, ends more quickly than expected. Green/brown line @ meniscus disappeared at 2:1, and since I've over-watered a few recently, I stopped there.

Aroma: Some pine, floral, even a slight medicinal note (though this was stronger before the louche). The herbs I'm familiar with were commingling quite nicely.

Flavor: Sweetness at first, then bitterness, with the bitterness taking over later. Close to well-balanced between the two.

Finish: Some numbing. Bitterness hangs on in the back of the throat, with the sweetness sticking around more to the fore. Light creaminess.

Overall: I'm looking forward to having my second glass of this verte with sugar, to compare and contrast the experiences. Even with the few absinthes under my belt, I would say this is a solid absinthe with the wormwood flavor dialed up a notch or two away from "well-balanced."

Like with my Lucid review, I scored all the categories from my impressions at the time, and scored the overall with hindsight. I really enjoyed this drink then, and still do, though then my overall may have been a 4. The overall now would be a 3.5, because I feel I have a better handle on what I enjoy in an absinthe. Today I would gladly drink this over Lucid and even Duplais Verte (review TK), with it just edging out Kubler on my "list."

Pouring the Siréne into my glass, my first thought was, "too dark!" It looks like a rich Extra Virgin Olive Oil, dark and thick. The aroma neat was citrus and alcohol, reminding me in some ways of a gin.

It was the louche that made me sit up and take note. The icewater dripping into the glass produced marvelous oil trails, and a rich fog began to form at the bottom of the glass. As the louche continued, it grew ever more roiling and thundercloudish, with a tint of the olive and an unexpected tan highlight. The color wasn't the most attractive, but the action of the louche was quite appealing.

The aroma after louching was grassy, vegetal, and tangy. Flavor followed the aroma, with vegetal notes highlighted with wormwood bittnerness. Anise/fennel was in the background. The finish was dry, and somewhat short.

It was the next night, when I used Siréne as the base for an Absinthe Frappé, that I found the perfect use for this beverage. The strong louching of Siréne made for a very appealing cocktail, and the vegetal notes get toned down with the addition of the simple syrup and bitters. I think I found a good mixing absinthe!

Preparation



A thin stream from a fountain of iced spring water.



Color Before Water



A very pretty deep olive. The color is natural and quite attractive but far to dark for my taste -not the eye popping Peridot or Emerald that are so prized. But nonetheless very pretty and perfectly translucent without even a hint of sediment



Aroma Before Water



Delicious. Albeit unusual in that the Anise, Fennel and "licorice notes" were further back than I'm used to but this was a welcome surprise. The aroma is delightful and mild with wonderfully herbal and floral bouquet. No heat of alcohol whatsoever. Very clean and appetizing. But again, very faint



Louche



The Louche began quite quickly, at first swirling puffs and smokey rolls that filled my glass quickly - not dramatic in the sense of a thunder storm in your glass but very decent. I stopped the water at half way and noticed the color was almost a very light Amber. There was a nice opalescent quality at this point and if I held the glass and swirled it little glimmers of greens could be seen. At full finish the color appeared much closer to what I've been accustomed to, thick and milky with a nice olive green hue. Mouth feel is thinner than the Louche leads you to expect but for me this is a plus.



Aroma After Water



Still just as inviting but very delicate and soft. It reminded me of Martaeu in the way it left me wanting more volume to these unique and fresh new notes. There's something grass like and soothing and what I detected to be a bit floral. In short, crisp, clean and most inviting. Zero odd or off putting scents of any kind or degree.



Flavor



Wow, I expected the flavor to follow the aroma and boy was I wrong. At first there's a real bite of bitter Wormwood that's really delightful and unexpected. I felt it pinch my tongue and give way to more subtle and a bit sweeter notes from the Fennel and Anise. Even with sugar this is much more of a savory drink but that said the harmonious balance between sweet and savory is intriguing and delicious.



The Finish



Nice numbing of the tongue and a lingering grassy taste with delicate hints of something minty and fresh. The finish lingers which is really very nice. There was a bit of cloying residue after it fades.





Final Impression



Exceptional, beautifully complex and satisfying. It packs a punch of Alcohol at the first few sips but this may have more to do with water ratio than anything else. Definitely one of the nicest Absinthes I've tried. I might have liked more of kick from Anise but if I learned anything from this Absinthe it's that Anise and Fennel don't have to bowl you over. They can be part a tapestry of flavors and still bring their unmistakable presence to the table without drowning out everything else.Stop reading and order yourself a bottle.

Tasted from a bottle labeled "Batch No. 3". Nice packaging but note that the bottle is tall, it does not fit on the shelf with my more standard-sized liquor bottles.



Color: olive oil, a bit on the dark side but pleasant and natural looking. Tasted previously, there was a floater in the glass, and I noticed a couple of chunks of sediment in the bottom of the bottle. This time it poured clear, and the other bottle I have shows no signs of sediment, so benefit of the doubt here and I'll rate a 3.



Nose (neat): Anise is there, not as upfromt as I've grown accustomed to, but there's enough there to know this is absinthe. Alpine/herbal notes are present, and there's pretty obvious citrus and gin character, leaning towards a spicy cologne/after-shave. I find it all really nice, the only knock is that the gin smell distracts me a bit; I'm trying to focus on this as an absinthe and something in my brain keeps whispering "gin" in my ear.



Louche: Louche is nice, trails develop and then the bottom of the glass begins to cloud. It comes on pretty quick, and I didn't get the beautiful "rolling clouds" that sometimes form, this was pretty smooth clouding from the bottom up, displaying nice separation during a slow louche. I finished at about 4:1 and the final look is a bit dark and opaque, but attractive enough.



Nose (after louche): I usually detect more anise after the louche, and the Sirene follows this trend. Anise is a bit more in the front, nice complex alpine background, a bit spicy/minty (perhaps wormwood is coming through now?). The gin aroma is still there, but it's sitting back a bit more now and I think it seems better balanced than it did when smelled neat.



Flavor: Tastes just as you'd expect after the aroma. Anise, definite citrus, gin/spice, and a pretty good wormwood bitterness to balance it all. Quite big and delicious.



Finish: I found the finish to be pretty simple, dominated by bitterness and tongue-numbing anise. The other flavors seemed to recede pretty quickly, leaving a nicely refreshing bitterness that was unfortunately overwhelmed by clinging anise. I'll rate a 3, but leaning towards a 2. The finish isn't bad, but you're hoping for more when everything before it is so nice.



Overall, I really like Sirene, and I don't regret that I purchased 2 bottles with my initial order. The gin notes take it a bit away from tradition, but I think they're a nice complement to the alpine/forest character. And from reading other reviews, I think it distracts me more than most others.

My gracious thanks for the Sample so generously provided, as it was actually a pleasure to put my tastebuds to work on this one.



the Color is a bit dark.



the Louche is actually pretty nice, given the initial color, but could be a bit nicer if it started a bit lighter.



the Aroma is for me one of the strong suits of this particular offering. A decided citrusy element that is not at all unpleasant and invites additional sniffery. Smells lemony/tangeriney to me; my Wyfe and a friend said Orange Peel so I'll just say Citrus, in a strangely harmonic and not overpowering way.



the Flavor is in keeping with the Aroma (although the citrus element is mostly a nose thing), but maybe a lil' bit more Wormwood would help it along. Got a bit of the Juicy Fruit/Big Red thing, but not enough to put me off. Still quite nice.



the Finish wasn't unplesant, it could have lasted longer though.



Overall, I'd say go out and buy a bottle. It's the first domestic absinthe I've had that actually gets me there without any qualifiers thrown in. A nice traditional product but still individual, and I'm a guy who likes that.