La Fée Parisienne Absinthe, 1 x 70cl

Product Information

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 All-natural ingredients (colour clear), distilled in France. Central ingredient being Grand Absinthe (Artemisia absinthium) and having a classic strength of 53%abv.

George studied all the legal issues surrounding spirits and absinthe in the EU and again enrolled that helpful local Trading Standards Officer, Paul Passi, in his battle with a document called EU Council Directive 88/388/EEC. This resulted in the first legal government-signed document on absinthe issued by an EU country since the blanket absinthe bans took effect around the world between 1898 and 1932. It was this watershed document that set the legal precedent for all subsequent absinthe sales in 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). How to make: Squeeze and drop lime wedges into glass half-filled with crushed ice. Add mint and absinthe churn with ice. Fill glass with more crushed ice and Top with lemonade (or lemon-lime soda).So began George’s life in the drinks industry, selling traditional Czech Beer and various interesting spirits to London’s top-end bars, with his beloved Wedgewood blue 1969 Triumph Herald 1360 Convertible stuffed full of samples. During 1998 he expanded his offering, adding Czech plum brandy Slivovitz and Bohemian Sekt, a sparkling wine. Then in 1998, he came across Bohemian absinth (without the final ‘e’). My company set out to change absinthe’s status as merely an artefact of the past. Reading about absinthe is one thing. But seeing it, smelling it, tasting it, and finally experiencing it take one both physically and mentally to another level of understanding. Absinthe opens a door in time to a bygone age, bringing to life the heady atmosphere of Paris in the thirty years of decadence and enlightenment which led up to the Great War of 1914. Having established they could legally sell absinth(e) in the UK, John Moore and George negotiated and signed their first contract with a Czech distiller to produce their first absinthe on 9th November 1998. 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." We had already come across John’s name during our own research while reading an article he had written in an early edition of The Idler. At the time absinth was only available in a few Prague bars, and if any other source existed in Prague or the rest of Bohemia, its profile was low to the point of invisibility. Although I had been working and playing in Prague since 1993, I had not come across any noticeable presence of absinth while I was there.

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.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. This starts with colour (crystal clear), then adding water to establish the depth of louche (white with a hint of blue). 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.) 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.

ever conscientious, George set upon a program to limit release to carefully selected bars who had received appropriate staff training. Despite this the reaction was predictable and the reopening of the absinthe market was questioned in The House of Lords. Many County Councils mistakenly pulled the product from bars only to find themselves being presented with copies of the original EU certificate which vouched for and soon after started making his own liqueurs and spirits. In 1947, his son Radomil opened his distillery they maintain that this is when he started making absinth. The next year he was abruptly put out of business by the communist regime seizing his distillery and taking over production of his vodka and other spirits. He reclaimed the distillery after the Velvet Revolution of 1990 and started producing Hill’s Absinth. Legally cleared to import and sell Czech Absinth, George and John Moore accompanied by Radomir, their indispensible translator and guide headed for the Hill’s Liguere distillery to negotiate a contract with the distiller, Radomil Hill, and his daughter. Custom demanded that every contract term agreed was toasted. Absinthe was all the rage across turn-of-the-century Europe until governments started to ban its sale with the French ban of 1915 effectively eradicating the spirit from most of the world’s bars. Prior to George’s involvement in absinthe, few had much interest in seeing its return, and those that did simply didn’t spend as much time scrutinising the terms of each nation’s ban for loopholes. Had they done so, they’d have found that the 1915 French ban only applied to the sale, rather than the production of absinthe, leaving the way open for a French distillery to produce it, quite legitimately, for export. George became the first to exploit this loophole (as you’ll read later).

Prohibition Of Absinthe

How to make: Pour La Fée into ice-filled glass with splash of water, let stand. Separately Throw other ingredients with ice. Then strain La Fée into shot glass ('sidecar'). Strain thrown drink into La Fée coated chilled glass.