Color: Very attractive peridot. Deep and inviting with perfect clarity.

Louche: Thick billowing trails starting from the top of the glass. A very bright green meniscus that ends at around 3/1 water ratio. A cross between jade and lime juice when fully louched. I haven’t seen it yet in natural sunlight however.

Aroma: Very powerful sweet/fruity anise which is followed by an earthy undertone of wormwood. Every now and then I smell a slight funk but this is tough to distinguish from the earthy characters. I also get hints of dill in this absinthe.

Flavor: Assertive wormwood wrapped in more ‘Juicy Fruit’ anise. I again detect a decent dill presence in the flavor with some fennel. Towards the end the flavor is earthier. I like how the earthiness and fruitiness come and go; they intertwine well and make for an interesting drink

Finish: Candy-like anise once more. Very interesting that it includes fennel as well. It doesn’t last long enough which is surprising for such a robust flavored absinthe.

Overall: I think this is a very good absinthe. It has all of the characteristics of a quality verte. It’s a pretty good value for folks looking to enjoy a traditional verte.

I enjoyed this best with a 3.5 to 1 water ratio and a sugar cube.

*I revisited this after many other brands, and have modified the review.

Served at 3:1, 4:1 and 5:1 and it opens up nicely at the higher ratios.

Color: Lovely sparkling peridot. natural looking. Color after louche is wonderful as well.

Aroma: Nice..anise, wormwood and light spice. It filled the room and made me want to drink it!

Louche: Very nice louche...developing slowly and evenly with clear trails and nice colors. Smoky clouds billowed up, with a clear layer at the top. The thickness of the louche was very nice, not too thin, not too thick.

Flavor: The anise is at the forefront here, wormwood is just a tad behind it. Not a lot of complex elements, which is not a bad thing. Surrounding the trinity is a pleasant light spice, light mint and gentle floral element.

Finish: Clean and quality elements. The Wormwood is more present here. Finish fades to a nice fennel, pepper and citrus.

I'd buy this again and share it with friends as a good affordable absinthe. It is a great intro to French style vertes.

The color is a pale emerald green. The louche a little thin, but still clouds to a really nice billow. Aroma before water is anise, with a tinge of wormwood, and herbal. After louche the aroma blossoms into a wormwood, anise perfume that has a mint/fruit spice quality. The taste is sweet, clear and precise. Herbal with wormwood, mint and spice, with a velvety mouth feel. The finish is of mint, wormwood and spice. A very drinkable absinthe.

Color: Vieux Pontarlier has a color that is not unattractive, but is too far on the yellow side of the spectrum to qualify as a true peridot. However, after having been opened for a month or two it does age to a more appropriate color.

Louche: The louche was active, with nice, roiling clouds that weren't too thick nor milky. This is one category in which this absinthe truly shined.

Aroma: Upon first opening the bottle a few weeks ago, I found the VP to have a somewhat grassy or spinachy aroma which I found off-putting. This has since mellowed out some, but it is still present before loucheing; after the louche, the smell is far less concentrated and merely average.

Flavor: Some have cited a mintiness in VP, but to my palate it seems like a strong, distinctive wormwood. I'm new to absinthe, and I may be wrong about this, but I simply find it to be heavy on the wormwood and spicy zing. This is one of the few absinthes that I add a full measure of sweetener (1 tsp of agave nectar), at which point the flavor is full and enjoyable. A ratio of 4.5 or 5:1 worked best for me.

Finish: The wormwood leaves its mark on the tongue, with a numbing that lasts a bit longer than it should. The aftertaste is bitter, but not excessively so, although it does remain well after the flavor has gone.

Overall: I'm glad to say that my initial concerns about what the funky aroma may indicate the flavor would be like were proven to be of little concern at all. Vieux Pontarlier is a solid offering that may not rate as highly as some, but is a tasty absinthe that I would not turn down.

My bottle has been open since the beginning of January 2009. I did carafe pours for all glasses.

Color – Peridot. It is very pleasing to the eye, even if it is a little pale. 4.5 would be my rating if it were possible, so I chose 4 because I’d love that tiny bump of color.

Louche: A little fast with a thin stream from a carafe, and no “billows” that I could see. However, it is certainly attractive, and the separation is clear down to the last millimeter.

Aroma: I really like the aroma this has, both louched and un-. There is a fruity quality I really enjoy—can anise smell this fruit-like?—and there’s a pleasant kick from the wormwood. There are other scents in the mix, but they seem more in the background.

Flavor: The wormwood is front and center to my palate, with a pinch of spice accompanying it. The anise and fruit notes are at the beginning of the sip, though they are more subtle at this point. A decent amount of creaminess presents itself halfway through or so. The flavor seems unified to me, which I initially read as being “simple”–not a bad simple, just that it went over my head for the first glass or two from the bottle.

Finish: The wormwood and spice are at play the most here, though the finish didn’t last as long as I would have liked.

Overall: The flavor and the pre-louche aroma (a force to be reckoned with) are the inverse of each other, in that the anise and fruit notes present upon opening the bottle give way to the wormwood upon louching and on the palate. Because my only quibbles are a slightly pale color and a short finish, I see this as a solid offering.