La Fée Parisienne Absinthe, 1 x 70cl

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There is one last stage before we are ready to bottle: A sample is couriered to Marie-Claude Delahaye (in Paris) and George Rowley, who test each batch, using their extensive experience of tasting Absinthe and their knowledge of the original master recipe. I set up my first company, Bohemia Beer House Ltd. (now trading as BBH Spirits Ltd.) with the aim of evaluating and exporting Czech beer. The intention, satisfyingly simple, was to allow me to continue to enjoy living in Prague, home of our first office, under the management of Radomir Horacek, whilst letting me come home to England; my intended market. You may well ask what has this to do with absinthe-drinking today, but bear with me: The learning curve provided by this period of self-education in the industry was the foundation of my role in returning absinthe commercially to Europe. ingredients (squeeze lime wedges and drop into drink) and top with more ice before topping with tonic water. The Absinthe Museum in Auvers-sur-Oise, France shows social and cultural life of the impressionist era with artefacts, posters and paintings - with a bar to sample absinthe

Poster depicts absinthe as an alluring woman at the stake, looking across to Switzerland to her sister already residing in the heavens! Italy was one of the last countries to ban absinthe following a referendum in 1930s. Absinthe was consigned to history until our intervention! La Fée Absinthe Blanche Parisienne was first distilled in 2011 in association with the Musée de l’Absinthe, Auvers-sur-Oise, France, and its founder and curator, Marie-Claude Delahaye. It is distilled in copper stills at the Cherry Rocher distillery in the Rhône-Alpes region of south-east France and contains 11 different herbs and spices, including Artemisia absinthium (Grande Wormwood) and Artemisia pontica (Petite Wormwood). It is bottled at 53% ABV: The traditional strength for Blanche absinthe was 53% ABV - 55% ABV. [ citation needed] La Fée Absinthe is a brand of absinthe, a highly alcoholic, distilled spirit containing the herb wormwood ( Artemisia absinthium). La Fée Absinthe was created by Green Utopia, which is owned and run by George Rowley. This starts with colour (soft green with a hint of yellow), then by adding water to establish the depth of louche. Then taste and aroma of the botanicals that are released by the drop in abv through dilution to drinking strength (12% to 16%abv). In the event any aspect is not to our exacting standards, the distillery is then advised of any fine-tuning required, a very rare event as our experience has grown since our returning the distilling of traditional absinthe to France over a decade ago (May 2000).By the time the ban took effect, absinthe had already acquired mythical status through the painters, poets and bon viveurs of the belle époque who venerated it in their art. Its theatrical service gilded things, too: the ornate water fountain, that special spoon with its sugar cube, the louching effect of the liquid (turning opaque with the addition of water) and the unmistakable receptacle that held it. Each distillation of La Fée Parisienne Absinthe Supérieure is personally quality taste tested by Delahaye and Rowley There is one last stage before we are ready to bottle La Fée: A sample is couriered to Marie-Claude Delahaye (in Paris) and also to George Rowley, who test each batch, using their extensive experience of tasting Absinthe and also their knowledge of the original master recipe. This starts with colour (soft green with a hint of yellow), then adding water to establish the depth of louche. Then taste and aroma of the botanicals that are released by the drop in abv through dilution to drinking strength (12% to 16%abv). In the event any aspect is not to our exacting standards, the distillery is advised of any fine-tuning required, a rare event as our experience has grown since our returning the distilling of traditional absinthe to France over a decade ago (May 2000). Vincent van Gogh - One of the world's most revered artists, is believed to have enjoyed a fair share of absinthe in his day

Today, the Green Fairy’s enduring allure is imbued in La Fée’s branding and the novel serves it has created to bring absinthe to a wider audience. Rowley’s first-ever customer – a certain Johnny Depp – has no doubt helped to shift a few cases, too. Absinthe becomes widely exported around the world. New York, New Orleans and as far as China, enjoyed by millions in the heyday of the Belle Époque 1871 to 1914. The joy of Czech Beer is its fullness of flavour, combined with the fact that Bohemia is not only the heartland, but in my view the birthplace of true lager-brewing. In Prague we would sit in cool Bohemian bars wondering what it was that made the beer taste so good and why the same beer (if it could be found at all in the UK) seemed to be a shadow of its former self. Was it’s original character somehow lost in the transportation process? Or was the magical Bohemian atmosphere of Prague going to our heads?

Once the spirit is distilled with the respective herbs and spices it will be cut down to strength using demineralised water for Blanche and Parisienne, the final Absinthe is cut to 53%abv (106 proof) and for Parisienne, the final Absinthe is cut to 68% abv (136 proof). The Taste of True French Absinthe The brand original, La Fée Parisienne Absinthe Supérieure, is a traditional French absinthe distilled at the Cherry Rocher distillery using Grand Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) and other fine herbs. The nose neat is a powerful smooth spirit with a noticeable herbal Artemisia profile with soft tones of anis, fennel and spicy coriander showing… … after dilution the louche effect has turned the absinthe supérieure to a milky, opalescent green/yellow and opens up the aroma and taste, as the essential oils trapped in the distillations are released, filling the air and your senses.

What follows is my journal; a celebration and first-hand account of the first years of absinthe’s return, from the launch of La Fée Absinthe Parisienne, a Grand Wormwood distilled absinthe bottled in Paris which, in 2000, restored traditional absinthe distilling to France for the first time since the 1915 ban continuing to this day. La Fée Absinthe Parisienne was first distilled in July 2000 [1] in association with the Musée de l’Absinthe, Auvers-sur-Oise, France, and its founder and curator, Marie-Claude Delahaye, who is also a Director of La Fée LLP. [2] It was the first absinthe to be legally distilled and bottled in France since the 1915 ban. It is distilled in copper stills at the Cherry Rocher distillery in the Rhône-Alpes region of south-east France and contains nine different herbs and spices, including Artemisia absinthium (Grande Wormwood) and Artemisia pontica (Petite Wormwood). It is bottled at 68% ABV: The traditional strength for French absinthe was 68% ABV - 72% ABV.Once experienced, the local Czech product is the first step to a true appreciation of the finer points of real lager or beer. Unfortunately, consumers in Britain have become so accustomed to the sterility and blandness of lager that is treated to achieve a twelve-month shelf-life, they are often unaware of what they are missing. Marketing hyperbole maintains the illusion by extolling the virtues of “crisp” and “clean” beer, while the original, full-bodied character of the beer is lost in translation. Fortunately, there would be no such difficulty with absinthe, being a spirit with such a high volume of alcohol that it makes pasteurisation irrelevant. La Fée distil a range of six different absinthes: Parisienne, a traditional French style Verte (coloured/green) absinthe; Blanche, a traditional Blanche (white/clear) style; Bohemian, a modern, Czech style absinthe; La Fée X•S Suisse and La Fée X•S Française, which are two “extra supérieure,” wine-based absinthes; and La Fée NV, a lower strength absinthe for "modern drinking." John Moore is a musician and writer who’s many talents include coaxing ethereal sounds from the musical saw and writing blogs for newspapers. In his article for The Idler he describes stumbling across absinth whilst on tour with his band in Prague, and finding himself drawn to its romance and hedonistic appeal.

April 1998 Rowley applied EU directive for spirits crafting the legal status absinthe uses to this day. Whether chaperoning the World Bank, which was financing industrial operations on a grand scale for the first time in a former eastern bloc country, or a British supermarket seeking presence in the Czech market: I was conscious of the gap, not only between the then Soviet mentality and the western approach to business, but also to the potential impact of, and importance to our clients of local cultural differences. During its acquisition of the K-Mart operation in the Czech Republic, the Tesco due diligence team, for example, was most astonished to see Carp (the traditional Christmas Eve dish here) being sold live in store and then often being kept in domestic bathtubs for several days to purge them of the muddy taste characteristic of bottom-feeders. Another important distinction was the lower percentage of supermarket floor space around 30% – allocated to food retailing. Tesco is moving substantially towards that ratio in the UK (though live carp is still conspicuous by its absence) and it will be interesting to see how the company handles its current move into the USA, a market which La Fėe too is entering. Suited and booted, with Radomir (my local assistant and translator) I approached what we considered, after much tasting and travelling throughout the country, to be the best of the independent brands and breweries. We had something revolutionary to offer these local enterprises across the Czech Republic: access to the UK, one of Europe’s key markets. Within six months we had signed up three good breweries, producing such beers as Lobkowicz, Rebel and our first spirit, the Czech national liqueur, (Becherovka, now, coincidentally, owned by Pernod Ricard.) University, they carried out 1st commercial tests for him since 1915 ban, proving absinthe with thujone, was within EU limits to imbibe, enabling absinthe return at The Groucho Club, Soho, London, November 1998.Rowley soon after starts work with Marie-Claude Delahaye, absinthe museum owner and world renowned absinthe expert and historian. They teamed up: Moore on the PR and Rowley, among other things, on the creation of a template to legalise the drink in the EU (the Czech Republic was not yet a member). ‘I went to three labs in the UK and not one of them could do the proper chemical compound analysis – crazy!’ says Rowley. But with the help of Prague University, the analysis tools were created to do a proper commercial test. NV Absinthe Verte by La Fée is a modern, lower abv (38%) French absinthe, aimed at the bar, club and all round party scene. Its lower alcohol content allows for greater flexibility with serving options, or allows it to be drunk neat or over ice. NV Absinthe Verte is distilled with Grand Wormwood, and uses a grain alcohol base. [ citation needed] Cherry Rocher Distillery [ edit ] It was widely propagated that absinthe’s principal ingredient, wormwood, had hallucinogenic properties, which made you do irrational, impulsive things. Nonsense, of course, but that disparaging one-liner remains in hearts and minds, even today. In reality, absinthe was merely a contributor to the alcoholism that pervaded Europe at the time.