Reviewed by Donnie Darko 11/20/2006

COLOR BEFORE WATER 9/10
A lovely ruby-cranberry colour. Deeper than I expected, just a tad dark, but certainly attractive, and entirely natural!

LOUCHE ACTION 5/10
It half louches, so it gets half of the points, even with a slow very cold drip. It looked like it tried really hard to get a louche going there for a second, but then faltered.

COLOR AFTER WATER 6/10
I've seen a couple properly louched red absinthes, and they can have a great strawberry milk colour. This colour is closer to Grenadine syrup mixed w/ Sprite (i.e. Shirley Temple). It's not ugly in and of itself, and certainly appears drinkable, with nice jeweled deep red hues throughout, but it doesn't look like a louched glass of any colour absinthe should.

AROMA 20/30
I smell a light aroma of good wormwood and some other interesting flowers, some mild anise, and there's alcohol heat and a somewhat dank aroma under that. The aroma is actually nice in passing, but none of the fragrances are very assertive, and you need to stick you nose to the edge of the glass to get most of them.

MOUTH-FEEL 4/10
I've had worse, but it's not creamy or smooth, and is more thin than not. The alcohol is not as sharp as in previous Emile products I've had, so that improvement deserves praise. The one thing the mouth feel does have going for it is a candy sweetness which I suspect originates from the colouring.

TASTE 11/20
There are some great tastes in here and awful tastes in here. Sadly, the awful tastes hit you first. The first taste is, in a word, skanky. It reminds me of walking into a room containing a persistent foul odour that someone tried half-heartedly to mask with cheap perfume. Once you get past that, however, there's a very nice sweet candy flowery taste, followed by a good quality wormwood kick that at least partially makes up for the initial taste surprise. The taste is where you really notice the lack of anethole (the compound in anise and fennel that contributes to the louche and adds some of that rich sweetness good absinthes are known for), and I think the off-putting initial taste could have been significantly subdued if only the absinthe had a more concentrated anise and fennel presence.

OVERALL IMPRESSION 6/10
This absinthe is better than many absinthes out there, and certainly is unique, but it's lacking a few things important in great absinthes (good louche, balanced pleasant flavour). It does have a pretty good aftertaste though, mostly wormwood and a sweet Sorrel like candy taste which perhaps is resultant from the colouring. Ultimately though the product seems confused and the taste is too conflicted to be satisfying. There are some good herbs in there, but they are unfortunately seem somewhat incompatible, at least in their current ratios.

One could describe this absinthe as a prostitute with a heart of gold that is attractive at first, but once you get her under the lights you realize that she's wearing too much of the wrong makeup.

PERSONAL NOTES
The labelling on this bottle is great. The word "ROUGE" on the neck has a great Moulin-Rougeish font and the Emile label itself seems pretty close to the original pre-ban Emile Pernot design.

Donnie Darko scores Un Emile Rouge 61 out of 100

Reviewed by AndrewT 1/3/2007

COLOR BEFORE WATER 9/10
A very beautiful shade of red. Since there is no accepted standard for red colored absinthes, I'll treat the color score purely aesthetically. The score of 9 is just to leave some room for improvement, although I personally have not seen a more attractive red absinthe.

LOUCHE ACTION 6/10
I wasn't expecting much from an Un Emile, but I think this is substantially better than their "verte". It never really gets opaque, but there is certainly more cloudiness than their flagship variety. It also has a distinct band of less cloudy liquid at the top during the louche, although not as transparent and sharply defined as other top absinthes.

COLOR AFTER WATER 4/10
The weak louche doesn't make the final color look nearly as appetizing as the pre-water color. More of a "pink lemonade" than a "stawberry milk" color.

AROMA 27/30
Before water - There is a lovely fruity aroma. If I didn't know better, I'd say it due to something in the coloring step, but I know from experience that this particular kind of fruitiness is from the wormwood. The vibrant color matches the aroma perfectly.

After water - The aroma is pretty much a lesser version of the pre-water aroma. My only complaint is that there are no really bright scents jumping out with the addition of water.

MOUTH-FEEL 8/10
Most absinthe seems to happen on the back of the tongue. This absinthe has a wild sweet flavor that plays on the tip of the tongue like no other absinthe I've tasted. Combined with the slight bitter of the wormwood, it's almost like stereo for your tongue.

The anise mouthfeel is obviously about as weak as the louche, but I think the other flavors compensate an awful lot.

TASTE 17/20
The taste is very simple, but quite enjoyable. The two main flavors I pick up are the tasty tasty wormwood (although more than a little bitter) and the sweetish flavor I mentioned in the mouthfeel section, which I assume is from the coloring step. As simple as it is, I taste no flaws, and it's quite enjoyable.

OVERALL IMPRESSION 8/10
This is a very pleasantly non-standard absinthe. It's certainly something I'd buy again. My biggest complaint about it is the louche, which is a perennial problem for the Pernot distillery. With that fixed up, I think they'd have a real winner.

PERSONAL NOTES
Contrary to my usual opinion, I think this would be better prepared with sugar.

AndrewT scores Un Emile Rouge 79 out of 100

Reviewed by mthuilli 01/21/2007

COLOR BEFORE WATER 9/10
A very nice 'bloody' color, very dense.

LOUCHE ACTION 6/10
Too light, I was expecting a thicker louche. Acceptable though.

COLOR AFTER WATER 4/10
As I was pouring water, I was waiting for a beautiful 'strawberry-milk' color, but nothing happened, I did get some red glints though, but nothing entertaining.

AROMA 26/30
Here it is, a very pleasant & fruity Pontarlier wormwood first, then a very floral aroma, spicy flowers, an oriental garden.

MOUTH-FEEL 3/10
I was really disappointed here, not rich, not creamy, not round.

TASTE 8/20
First, a very acrid taste, not 'bitter', 'acrid', not pleasant at all, must be the hibiscus. Then the very pleasant tall wormwood which saves the score. Then? nothing transcendent, a slightly dicernible green anise taste, somewhat pleasantly biting, and a lack of fennel.

OVERALL IMPRESSION 4/10
That acrid taste lasted in my mouth for a long time, way too long... Definitely not my cup of tea. I scored it 4 because of the great tall wormwood that saved the taste, but that's just a small part of the recipe.

PERSONAL NOTES
Add sugar!

mthuilli scores Un Emile Rouge 60 out of 100

Reviewed by Hartsmar 1/23/2007

COLOR BEFORE WATER 9/10
A very nice red. Completely natural and clear.

LOUCHE ACTION 6/10
Even though the Emile's aren't known for a great louche, there have been improvements during the last year or so.
Using ice cold water and a slow drip it actually does present a quite decent louche.

COLOR AFTER WATER 6/10
Sadly it doesn't turn into the pretty pink I had hoped for but it's ok.
It's a greyish pale red.

AROMA 23/30
Before water: Very nice floral aroma. Wormwood very noticable along with the flowery scent from the coloring.
After adding water it is a little flattened but still nice. Nothing extremely spectaular though.

MOUTH-FEEL 7/10
Nice but it could have been more full-bodied than this. It lacks a bit of creaminess but it's not bad.
A little more anise would help it a lot I'm sure.

TASTE 16/20
The one thing that of course differentiates this one from most others is the taste of the coloring flower.
Definitely unique and I actually do like it. It mixes well with the wormwood but could have benefited from
a bit more anise.

OVERALL IMPRESSION 7/10
A very nice unique absinthe. Needs some work to be perfect but it's definitely worth a try!

Hartsmar scores Un Emile Rouge 2006 74 out of 100