Wednesday 27 July 2011

From field to fountain ... in 209 seconds

It's the end of July and so it is harvest time in the Val-de-Travers where wormwood and other plants have been used to make absinthe since the late 18th century. The methods used to harvest and dry the plants and then to distill the absinthe have changed very little since then (maybe some of the alambics are a bit bigger).

This new video features Yves Currit (grower) and Claude-Alain Bugnon (distiller of La Clandestine, Angélique and Butterfly absinthes). In 209 seconds, it goes from "field to fountain:" a centuries-old tradition in the Val-de-Travers and nearby Pontarlier in France (of course in real life, the process takes a lot longer).



Not all "absinthes" are produced in such a natural way. As far as I know, there are no videos showing the "field to fountain" approach of the artificially-coloured absinthes sold in some countries. I guess the process of adding test tubes or even buckets of FD&C food colourings doesn't look so interesting!

3 comments:

Damo said...

Great clip... it's realy refreshing to see such a traditional practice still being used these days. I wish the clip had subtitles to put things perspective.

Alan said...

Thanks, Damo. Yes, sub-titles would have been nice, but I figured it was still quite interesting.

I blogged here recently about Absinthe: The Movie. All in English or with sub-titles. Currently only on Amazon/Hulu USA, but coming soon elsewhere.

Jean-Seb Michel said...

Hi Allan, I hope you are doing well,

This is a great clip! It shows the human labour and care behind the bottle. How not to like?

Also, this is a lovely pottery-style fountain that is put to good use at the end...

Best regards from Montreal,

Jean-Sebastien