Val-de-Travers

Because apparently, drinks do not believe in keeping paperwork.

Modern Absinthe is generally traced back to the Val de Traverse region of Switzerland in the late 1700s.

And there are a couple different versions of how it started.

One popular story says a French doctor by the name of, and I love this name right here, Pierre Ordinaire was living in Switzerland around the time of the French Revolution.

So, Marc, what other kinds of vintage spirits or absinthe antiques have you found that you found to be interesting? And what's the oldest thing that you've come across in your searches for these sort of things?

Oh, I think the thing we are really proud of is we found what we still believe because nobody uh shown anything older than that since uh is the oldest cognac bottle on earth which is from 1738 so that's really really old and we have no proof of anything older which would exist in the world uh so that's yeah that's one thing the oldest absinthe cognac bottle in the world and maybe the one of the oldest absinthe bottle that i sold to the absinthe museum in motier which were they were really really happy about it to to see that absinthe was coming back in switzerland after 200 years because it was produced in the Val de Travers at this time and it was coming back to the Val de Travers and it's now in their museum in Mautier.

So that was a very, very interesting find and the fact that it was going to the place where it was produced initially was really really a nice thing for me.

Wow, that's really beautiful.

We began with conversation and insights from a series of Swiss luminaries: stellar wine maker Anne-Claire Scott, and Pascal Lupferbrugger of Appenzeller Alpenbitter, Chef, entrepreneur and host Silvio German of Restaurant Mammertsberg, and Beat Imhof, director of GastroSuisse.

And a true one-of-a-kind, Georges Stähli, water buffalo farmer in the Val-de-Travers.

They all joined me, Tom Edwards, on stage at Kaufleuten, alongside the one and only Chandra Kurt, Monocle friend, Swiss wine-writing icon, and publisher of Weinzeller Journal.

Chandra and I kicked off proceedings.