La Fee Vallonne

From the 10th annual Boveresse Fête d'Absinthe, June 2007 I brought home a load of new Swiss absinthes. One of them was this La Bleue, La Fée Vallonne.
As most other La Bleues it is distilled in the Val-de-Travers region and carries the typical flavour profile of a Swiss La Bleue. Or, does it? Well, it is made in the Val-de-Travers but it actually differentiates itself a little bit from the many all too familiar La Bleues available.

With a very pleasant Wormwood aroma up front, nicely accompanied by Fennel and what appears to be Hyssop it blends into a rather fine herbal mix. Upon the addition of iced water it louches nicely even though it's not really an enticing show it puts on or anything but rather a plain and simple louche. It ends up a nice opaque grayish white though, a little bit paler than I expected but otherwise very good. After the water has been slowly dripped into the glass the aroma flattens a bit but then the anise breaks through and lends a fresh sweet nose.

The taste is actually much like a typical La Bleue but with reminders of something leaning toward the Brut d'Alambic mixed with Blanchette. The Wormwood which is constantly just a bit ahead of the other ingredients does improve the drink a lot. That is what makes me like this a bit better than a lot of the other La Bleues. There are so many now that it definitely takes some effort to make something a bit more interesting. This was a nice drink.