![]() ![]() But Stephen also used this situation to his advantage, playing different collectors against each other and sending messages to offer discounts for his “friends,” Bonnecaze says. Ultimately, being spread out and familiar with sharing information online helped Stephen’s victims figure out what was going on and ultimately prove that his pre-ban absinthes were fakes. He was also a member of several private, absinthe-focused Facebook groups and online forums where fans of the drink and its rich history would share pictures of vintage paraphernalia - antique absinthe spoons, water fountains used to dilute the drink and make it “louche,” or empty bottles dating from before the ban, as well as their rare discoveries of authentic vintage spirits - and stay in touch. Sometimes they ship samples to each other, especially if one of the group finds a vintage bottle that can be split up.Ī London resident with a posh, double-barreled last name, Stephen was a member of that world and a regular at the Absinthiades. Many collectors have known each other for decades. In real life they meet up only sporadically, usually at festivals like the Absinthiades, an annual celebration held in Pontarlier, France, the home of several of the spirit’s original producers. To understand the world of modern absintheurs is to enter a true demimonde: a small, tight-knit community, spread around the world, which connects mostly online. Everyone knew him.” Credit: Flickr A Hidden World The neon-blue Czech stuff, which doesn’t louche, was inauthentic.“He had been involved in absinthe for so long, he was so well-respected,” says Cary René Bonnecaze, a collector and antiques and replicas dealer who bought several pre-ban bottles of absinthe from Stephen that were later revealed to be fakes. The next issue was that no one had made proper absinthe for 80 years – ‘there was no blueprint for the recipe,’ says Rowley. The subsequent EU directive set a precedent by which Rowley could later go on to test his own La Fée. But with the help of Prague University, the analysis tools were created to do a proper commercial test. ‘I went to three labs in the UK and not one of them could do the proper chemical compound analysis – crazy!’ says Rowley. 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). While speaking to the producers he learned they’d been privately supplying musician John Moore – of The Jesus and Mary Chain fame – who had similar designs on the UK market. Look in Difford’s Guide and you’ll find more than 200 cocktails that call on a dash of La Fée’s herbal complexity for complement.Īlready busy importing Czech beer, Rowley wanted to do the same with a drink he came across in Prague called Hill’s Absinth (notice the missing ‘e’). Rowley’s first-ever customer – a certain Johnny Depp – has no doubt helped to shift a few cases, too.īut it was the serendipitous cocktail revival of the early Noughties that secured its position in the booze pantheon. 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. 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. In reality, absinthe was merely a contributor to the alcoholism that pervaded Europe at the time.īy 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. Nonsense, of course, but that disparaging one-liner remains in hearts and minds, even today. It was widely propagated that absinthe’s principal ingredient, wormwood, had hallucinogenic properties, which made you do irrational, impulsive things.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |