Our Libertine ® absinthes
Libertine® represents the new-found freedom to produce absinthe again…
The range includes:
- Libertine® Originale ABV 55%, the most balanced variety, gold medal winner at the 2018 Paris Concours Général Agricole.
- Libertine® Fleur d’Absinthe ABV 60%, with a sprig of wormwood in the bottle.
- Libertine® Intense ABV 72%, with higher aniseed and fennel content.
Each item is available as a bottle only, in a box, or in a pack with glasses and spoons.
Libertine® accessories
We supply all the accessories you need for the ritual of drinking absinthe:
- Water fountains with 2 or 4 taps
- Silkscreen printed Libertine® glasses
- Engraved Libertine® absinthe spoons
- Tray, and others.
These include:
- Charlotte® ABV 55%, presented in a box with a distinctly Parisian flavour, includes an absinthe spoon
- Verte de Fougerolles® ABV 72%, premium-quality absinthe
- Blanche de Fougerolles® ABV 74%, white absinthe, renowned among absinthe enthusiasts
- Absinthe Abel Bresson® and Absinthe Pierrot®, the two latest additions. Abel Bresson was the most prominent distiller in Fougerolles. His absinthes were extremely popular.
How should you take your absinthe?
A whole ritual is involved in serving absinthe. The fashion is not to drink absinthe neat, but as people once did during the flamboyant age of the Paris absinthe bars.
- Pour 2cl of absinthe into a glass.
- Place a slotted spoon over the glass and put a sugar cube on the spoon.
- Pour well-chilled water very gradually onto the sugar cube.
It soaks up the water and then gradually dissolves. The sugary water then drains through the slots in the spoon and mixes with the absinthe. If the sugar dissolves entirely, this generally means that the right quantity of water has been used.
The Green Fairy’s Secret Garden
The Distillerie Paul Devoille created the Green Fairy’s Secret Garden in 2014 to satisfy customers’ curiosity about absinthe. It features a range of plants used in absinthe (wormwood, fennel, angelica, coriander, lemon balm, speedwell, etc.) and a collection of artemisias.
It is open to the public throughout the year free of charge. An old chalot (a small rural building typical of the region) has been rebuilt in it as a space for drying wormwood plants harvested in summer. Information boards are also provided with details of how the garden was created and interesting facts about the chalot and absinthe among other things.
Absinthe is a legendary aperitif, which became very fashionable in the mid-nineteenth century. It was initially the preserve of the Paris artistic elite before being more widely adopted. In the early twentieth century, both men and women drank absinthe in bars. This was Happy Hour for absinthe (or the Green Hour as it was called back then in tribute to absinthe).
Sadly though, opponents of the drink began to join ranks, alarmed at its remarkable success. The wine-growing lobby (yes there was one back then!) reeling from the phylloxera epidemic used all its influence and dirty tactics to discredit absinthe. It was behind the famous slogan “absinthe drives people mad”. Such efforts culminated in the prohibition of absinthe in 1915.
Distilleries in Fougerolles produced around 16% of all absinthe consumed in France at the time. The ban therefore spelled the end for many Fougerolles distilleries and related trades such as cooperage and basketwork.
However, absinthe had given consumers a taste for aniseed, so the first aniseed-flavoured aperitifs began to emerge in 1922. These were produced using absinthe recipes minus the wormwood. And that’s how the first pastis came into being.
In 2001, Libertine® ABV 55% was launched. At the time, it was hard to tell whether there would be any demand from consumers after so many years of prohibition. However, Libertine worked its magic and became very popular.
In 2003, we harvested our first crop of artemisia absinthium from the hills overlooking Fougerolles. The range gradually developed, with accessories such as absinthe fountains and glasses also added into the mix.
In 2011, the prohibition act of 1915 was permanently repealed.
In the late 1980s, an EU regulation discreetly authorised “wormwood-based spirits”. In 2000, the Distillerie Paul Devoille started work on an absinthe based on a traditional recipe.
