‘People used to ring me up and ask, ‘can I buy a rabbit and two chickens?’ And I’d know how many bottles of absinthe they wanted and what type. You had to be careful talking on the phone back then!’
Willy Bovet chuckles at the memory of the old days when absinthe was banned and making it was illegal. ‘All of us small distillers were outlaws, of course. Every now and then someone would be raided, but it was just a token gesture, a fine, and the impounded absinthe always seemed to go back into circulation.’
Willy is a spry, whippet thin man in his eighties, a Swiss artisan distiller who makes absinthe at Absinthe Bovet La Valote in the Swiss village of Môtiers. He makes it the proper traditional way using ten different locally grown aromatic herbs and botanicals. ‘I pick only the very best,’ he says, stirring an emerald green concoction in a pot. This will become one of his premium drinks, the award-winning 77% ABV Emeraud Absinthe.
Real absinthe is always distilled, not mixed, and uses the dried flowers and leaves of a plant called Artemisia Absinthium; in fact, two kinds of plant: Grande Absinthe is for the main distillation and Petit Absinthe goes in towards the end, its chlorophyll helping create the iconic green colour. Then, if made by a proper artisan distiller like Willy, it’s aged for months in barrels before bottling.
The absinthe plant favours high altitudes and a cool climate, which is why its distillation is traditionally centered in the area that stretches across the border between Franche-Comté in France and the Val-de-Traversin Switzerland. In some ways absinthe as a drink resembles gin; it’s distilled from spirit that is infused with botanicals such as aniseed, fennel seed and other medicinal herbs, and it’s an easy production process for the small start-up craft producer.
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Chasing the green fairy: the absinthe distilleries of France and Switzerland
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