Reviewed by spoon 4/26/2008

COLOR BEFORE WATER 9/10
Very beautiful clear vibrant golden color with maybe a hint of olive. I poured a small sample of an earlier prototype for comparison, and it was the same color.

LOUCHE ACTION 9/10
Perfect, not too fast, slowly building from the bottom, becoming very thick. Line of clear yellow above the thick louche disappears when fully louched.

COLOR AFTER WATER 9/10
Beautiful opaque creamy color, very delicious looking.

AROMA 30/30
The fragrance is amazing. Smelling it neat, you don’t smell alcohol at all, but a very flowery fragrance. While louching, it becomes room filling and is quite astonishing: perfumy, seductive, delicious. There was no way I could justify deducting even a single point. As I finish up this review the glass has been empty for at least 10 minutes, I’m sniffing the glass and it still smells amazing.

MOUTH-FEEL 8/10
Very nice mouth-feel. Not super tongue-coating but very nice creamy feel.

TASTE 18/20
The taste is quite harmonious, and almost as delicious as the fragrance. I know from what Stefano said (when we met in Paris) that there are a large number of herbs here, and they blend extremely well. I believe that a number of them aren’t found in any other commercial absinthes but there is definitely nothing anyone would find out of place. The herbs are obviously of stellar quality, full of Italian sunshine and bursting with perfumy goodness. On a hot day like today it is very refreshing.

OVERALL IMPRESSION 10/10
I first tasted two early low-volume prototypes last year when we met Stefano in Paris. I was a huge fan of what Stefano was doing with those prototypes, and I’m very happy that he has been able to bring it from that small scale to nearing commercial reality. This one is a home run for me, easily my favorite (soon-to-be) commercial absinthe.

spoon scores L’Italienne (prototype #2) 93 out of 100