Color is a bit light; pale with a hint of green but mostly dead leaf. Well within the legitimate range but I prefer a bit brighter hue. I give it a 4.

Louche forms (mostly) from the bottom.Well on the way to opacity at 1:1. The thin line at the top finally disappears around 1:5 or so. Thick but not completely opaque. Another 4.

Aroma--Before watering, pretty alcoholic and minty. A bit rough. After adding water it opens up a bit. Very prominent minty wormwood is evident; other factors are present but pretty seamlessly blended to this nose. I chalk this up to 5 years of aging. Exhaling after drinking yields a very nice wormwood flavor. 4.

The flavor is wormwoody as all get-out with a very minty subtext. This is what a wormwood-heavy absinthe is trying to be. Anise and fennel are clearly present, but by no means dominant. There is a bit of burny alcoholic heat. The origin of the base alcohol(grape, grain, whatever) is not evident. Dry and a bit tingly on the tongue. Marked as a 4, but if this thing would let me enter 4.5 that would be more to my liking.

The finish is long, lingering, and pleasant.The tongue tingles with a blunt dryness that somehow works. Not particularly layered, but a nice long smooth fade out to a peppery dry warm tongue. Again, I attribute this to aging. Also, I'd give it a 4.5 if I could.

Overall, an intriguing product. If I had discovered this when I first started drinking absinthe in earnest--back when Doubs Mystique was a frontrunner on my favorites list-- I would have been all over this one. Nowadays my tastes are a bit different(for the most part) but as I grow more knowledgeable about absinthe I am struck by the skill evident in this product and its unique flavour. Not having tasted it when it was fresh I cannot say for certain how well it has aged but it has clearly aged well. An easy 4 across the board.