From Vedrenne, the Burgundy liqueur house based at Nuits-Saint-Georges since 1923, comes a coffee liqueur made for serious drinks rather than sweet novelty.
It pours dense and dark with caramel lights at the edge. The nose is well-toasted coffee bean, layered with cocoa, caramel and nougatine. The palate leads with espresso and mocha, dark chocolate building behind it, and there is a pleasing baked, earthy richness underneath that gives the liqueur real body.
The finish is potent but balanced, lingering and elegant rather than syrupy. The obvious call is an espresso martini, where it does the heavy lifting properly, but it is equally at home in a white russian, poured over ice cream, or served neat in a small glass alongside coffee.