Every year on the first weekend of October, absinthe lovers, distillers, sellers, authors, historians and collectors from all over the world come together in Pontarlier, France, for the Absinthiades.
These were already the 3rd Absinthiades that I attended, together with our team from Absinthes.com. Almost our whole team went to Pontarlier this year. Of course, I cannot compare 3 times with the number of times Andrew already attended 🙂
Dear absinthe lovers,
We’re back from an eventful weekend.
For the 15th year, the Absinthiades were held in Pontarlier last weekend. And this year was quite special: it was the 100th anniversary of the absinthe ban in France. From Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, absinthe distillers, sellers, historians, authors, collectors and absinthe freaks (we include ourselves among them) were reunited in Pontarlier.
It was the best Absinthiades for a long time. A long and exciting weekend, I prefer to talk about each day separately.
We stopped working earlier than usual and around 1:00 pm we headed towards Pontarlier.
Rather than stay in our usual hotel, we thought it was high time for change. And we found the perfect place, absolutely appropriate for an absinthe-tinged weekend: A turn of the century apartment complete with beautiful wooden and glass panelling inside. A belle-epoque treat! After we arrived, we dropped our bags and rushed over to where the action happens: the Théâtre Bernard Blier. And inside awaiting us, the facade of the Grand Café Georges: re-erected to resurrect the green hour, for just one weekend each year.
After we spent quite a long time on planning and testing, we’re pleased to tell you that our very own absinthe, the Blanche Neige, is now available in a full-sized 500ml bottle.
Blanche Neige is the name for our true, Swiss La Bleue from the Val-de-Travers, the birthplace of absinthe. This absinthe is distilled by Gaudentia Persoz, one of the world’s most talented absinthe distillers, who has achieved great success with her own absinthes.
What makes Blanche Neige that extra bit different is a precious and priceless ingredient, Génépi. This aromatic herb, from the Wormwood family, grows wild in the Alps. What sets it aside from other blanche absinthe is the much larger variety of herbs.
An eventful weekend, which passed by so quickly.
As every year, we drove to Pontarlier, in France for one weekend in October. This year was 14th Absinthiades taking place from the 3rd to the 5th of the month.
Read Stefanie’s account of what we got up to, below, and find out which absinthe brands were awarded medals at the end of this article.
We have the results of the Absinthiades competition and we were thrilled to see that in the blanche category, Maison Fontaine came out on top with a Grand Or prize, and Sevil got a Gold medal, and La P’tite a Silver. Finishing off the winners in the blanche category was La Clandestine.
