George Rowley flew to Geneva on his way to Pontarlier to collect both silver medals for the Verte and Blanche category at Absinthiades. Taking the opportunity to travel via the Route de l’Absinthe Val-de-Travers (Berceau de L’Absinthe) and visit a few distilleries and the SwissAbsinthe Museum in Motiers.
Val-de-Travers looked beautiful in the autumn colours on this iconic Absinthe route
George and Claude-Alain @ his distillery in Couvet, Switzerland
Visiting Maison de l’Absinthe in Motiers on the Route de l’Absinthe
Called in at Claude-Alain Bugnon distillery and shop in Couvet, we both enjoyed a lovely lunch with a glass of Clandestine – adjacent to the distillery as he was monitoring both working stills. At Claude-Alain’s suggestion I headed for the small village of Motiers to visit the new museum; Maison de l’Absinthe. Telling the Swiss story of Absinthe, its oppression, ban and bootlegging, to her legal return to Switzerland in 2005, a cfilm starts at the top, you then move down through the exhibition three floors, ending appropriately enough at a bar to sample local distilled Absinthe with an Absinthe herb garden out the back.
An anti-absinthe poster
Bovet La Valote Distillery sampling their range and La Fée X•S Suisse with Françoise Gomes-Bovet
As the evening draws in I take a brief tour of the Emile Pernot distillery and have chat
I also visited Bovet La Valote Distillery in Motiers and was kindly shown the stills by the owner’s daughter Françoise Gomes-Bovet we then proceeded to sample and enjoyed our local Absinthe Bovet and La Fée X•S Suisse. Then I needed to head down the valley across the French border to Pontarlier for my appointment at the Town Hall to collect La Fée’s awards from Absinthiades I made two more visits on the way, firstly to Les Fils D’Emile Pernot under the shadow of Castle Doubs that guards the French border with Switzerland
Guy Distillery in Pontarlier
The 5th generation start to help François Guy at the family distillery, learning their craft
An unsher enjoys a glass of Parisienne
And finally to Distillerie GUY – Pontarlier-Anis for an Absinthe sampling with his son Pierre, who was also collecting an award that night
Finally I arrive at the Town Hall:
Following an introduction by Philippe Chapon and the Mayor’s assistant, Miss Doubs 2013 handed out the awards with the customary “three kisses” I had the opportunity to congratulate the organizers, commending their work that helps promote the quality of Absinthe and its joint heritage both in France and Val-de-Travers, Switzerland. I touched on the work La Fée is doing overseas having recently returned from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney – doing Absinthe Master Classes on the category and for our traditional French and Swiss distilled La Fée Absinthe Supérieure and Extra Supérieure ranges. I was very pleased winning silver for both Verte and Blanche classes up against local Swiss & French boutique Absinthe (we did not enter the La Fée X•S range this year). This type of award endorses La Fée’s work in supplying high quality traditional absinthe around the world
The winners Absinthiades 2014
La Fée receiving the silver awards for both classes, Blanche and Verte with La Fée Blanche Absinthe Supérieure and La Fée Parisienne Absinthe Supérieure
Marianne statue, symbol of France
As I left early the next day for Geneva, I took this picture of a new absinthe dawn breaking through Pontalier’s famous town arched entrance