In early 1998 I started our pioneering work to bring absinthe back to the global market from our base in the UK. My strategy was simple: understand the history, distillation methods and absinthe category to its fullest, working with the best people in the industry. With the clear objective of ensuring absinthe’s long term future using historical and geographical accuracy. This simple philosophy has never been rushed.

For our first project I worked behind closed doors with the French Absinthe museum, Marie-Claude Delahaye and a Parisian distillery that historically produced absinthe prior to the 1915 ban. After many months of exhaustive research we were able to produce the first commercial French absinthe since the ban. La Fée Absinthe Parisienne was distilled using traditional methods and a fine balance of wormwood, anis and other fine herbs.

Through careful and responsible education to our customers, distributors and bar industry, by holding seminars around the world (including Hong Kong, Sydney, London and with Slow Food in Italy), La Fée has steadily grown to be sold in over twenty different countries.

For La Fée to represent the definitive range in Absinthe it was impossible to overlook the contemporary style [post 1989 Bohemia Velvet Revolution] electric-blue green Czech absinth. Before producing La Fée Bohemian we once again researched the market and local distilling practices. Via our Prague office we sourced the distillation and production of our premium La Fée Absinth Bohemian in the heart of Bohemia, in the Czech Republic.

Our next challenge was to source and work with the best experts in the industry for our flagship extra superior, La Fée X•S range. Being part of our on-going development this began in earnest two years ago, the catalyst being the Government in Switzerland overturning its 1908 ban. This change allowed us to go back to the very historical routes for both Swiss and French absinthe. The Val-de-Travers valley runs right through to Pontarlier, approximately 30km apart, and it is here you can literally taste the weight of absinthe history and distilling in the fabric of the surrounding French and Swiss Alps and fields of wormwood, that are starting to return.

Following many trips via Geneva the La Fée X•S range was secretly developed in Couvet, (Val-de-Travers) and Pontarlier with the aim of producing the ultimate classic absinthes maintaining their unique personalities. In doing so both X•S Suisse and X•S Française have their own localised qualities, defining the epitome of quality, region and substance offering you the best without compromise to country/location/distilling. Each bottle of our artisan La Fée X•S range carries within its embossed presentation box its own unique hand numbered certificate.

‘One of the primary goals for La Fée is to bring the generic category of absinthe back to the drinks industry today for the consumer, focusing 100% on high quality distillation, correct to: period, production, origin and serving.’

George Rowley
MD, Green Utopia Ltd