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…a little shocked to see that it’s going on three months since I last posted here. Some recent highlights:

A week in Polruan, across the estuary from Fowey in Cornwall, with Lee-Ann and the kids. One of our favourite places – isolated, no telephone, the cobbled streets too narrow for cars, an almost untouched fishing village, one shop, two pubs, perfect.

Much time in France, including an amazing trip with my friend Marc to pick up the 76 bottles of the Pernod-1914 cache at a remote and isolated farmhouse high in the foothills of the Jura – an extraordinary and slightly eerie place at the end of a long and deserted track that seemed to go on for mile after mile. The bottles had been transferred from the cellar to red Coca-Cola crates – an indignity, I know, for such precious relics, but it made squeezing them into our hired Citroen easier. A strange feeling to be man-handling dozens of pre-ban bottles on such an industrial scale, when normally one finds them one at a time, and swaddles each one in protective tissue paper. The journey home was not without incident or excitement either, but perhaps it’s best I draw a veil over the reasons why…

Visited many small antique bourses in the Doubs and Franche Comté – very few absinthe antiques, but very now and then one gets lucky - I found a wonderful and completely unrecorded carton for Absinthe Royer Hutin, loosely modelled apparently on Privat-Livemont’s iconic Absinthe Robette girl.

Tasted some superb wines in November at the trade tastings at the Salon des Grand Vins in Paris – verticals of Chateau Gillette, Chateau Montus, Dom Perignon (including the almost unobtainable Cuvée Oenologique bottlings) and, the highlight, 5 vintages of Lafite Rothschild, with a 2003 so fabulously perfumed that it was literally breathtaking.

Back in London in December, attended the inauguration of the new Master of The Worshipful Company of Distillers – an ancient London livery company directly descended from the medieval trade guilds. A very formal dinner for 300 followed in the Company’s Great Hall. The new Master (yes, it’s all a little Masonic – there are Wardens, Sub-Wardens and a Court of Assistants) pointed out to me a plaque on the oak-panelled walls, recording that in 1363 the then master gave a dinner in this hall with 5 kings present – the kings of England, France, Scotland, Denmark and Cyprus. Now that’s something to live up to. Felt slightly out of place because I didn’t have a knighthood or an OBE (like the gentleman on my right), and wasn’t a senior diplomat (like the silver-haired Chilean ambassador on my left), or the chairman of a major whisky distiller (like David Grant of Grant’s Whisky two places away – replendent in his ancestral tartan kilt). Dinner began with toasts to the royal family and past and present Masters, champage, then white Burgundy followed by a superb Chateau Lascombes with the lamb, followed in turn by Sauternes, vintage port and finally of course the passing of the Loving Cup, accompanied by much flourishing of ceremonial daggers…don’t ask, you had to be there. Quite an evening. I’m presenting a tutored tasting on absinthe to the Distillers in March.

Lee-Ann and I celebrated the New Year with some great wines, including a very rare 1998 Schram Rosé, courtesy of my friend ”Sancho” Panzer - by some distance the best New World sparkling wine I’ve tasted, and certainly the equal of Billecart-Salmon or one of the other benchmark rosé champagnes.

Early in January left for a trip to South Africa to visit my parents – the first time I’ve been back in nearly two years. Glorious weather, and the wonderful bright African light, so different from the hazy sunshine of Northern Europe. Sat and worked in my apartment on the beachfront overlooking miles of sand, palm trees and endless blue sky.

…and yesterday, in Paris, I bought for my Finest & Rarest site arguably the most important bottle of cognac in private hands…from the cellars of a legendary Parisian restaurant that closed in the 1950’s, in magnum, a wonderful 200 year old squat black-glass crudely handblown bottle, a large glass seal on the neck showing the unmistakeable image of a shooting star, and an ancient yellowed manuscript label “Vieux Cognac, 1811″. The year of Halley’s comet, the greatest vintage in Western Europe of the 19th century, some say the greatest vintage ever.

Spent most of last week judging at the International Wine and Spirit Competition, the oldest, largest and most prestigious competition of its kind. We tasted several different categories: eau-de-vies, other fruit spirits, cachaca, pisco, flavoured rums, anisettes….and of course absinthe. Everything is tasted absolutely blind, from identical numbered glasses – the identity of the winning medalists is not revealed, even to the judges, until the results are publicly announced. In marked contrast to the usual situation elsewhere, the general organisation and running of the competition is quite awesomely efficient. Of course there were disagreements and strongly held opinions, but I was struck by the degree of unanimity amongst the judges - who came from the UK, Switzerland, France, Austria, Germany, Italy and South Africa – when it came to the top products. 

The place to drink this in Paris is the wonderful Alsatian restaurant “Aux Deux Canards” – try it with the pan fried fois gras.

Rouge Gorge – The recipe:

8 parts Cotes du Rhone, 5 parts good quality gin – Tanqueray or Hendricks, 3 parts Crème de Mure. Mix well, and serve slightly chilled in a brandy glass.

The combination sounds strange, but the perfume of the gin combines with the violet aromas of the Rhone wine and the fruitiness of the Crème de Mure to create an absolutely bewitching – and lethal – cocktail.

After a week distilling in Pontarlier, we spent our final night in the region at Le Soliat, an isolated fondue hut perched at the end of a dirt track on the edge of the Creux du Van precipice, high in the mountains above Couvet -  a magical place, where the spirit of La Fee Verte vibrates in the mist, and the names of absinthe makers a century ago share space on the smoke stained timbers with those of a more recent vintage…

Talking of old frauds, read this description of a dinner, by Aleister Crowley; say what you like about the Wickedest Man in the World, he knew how to live…

From the Simon Iff series “Suffer the Little Children”, originally published in 1917:

“The wind was somewhat taken out of his sails by the appearance of Simon Iff at dinner in full evening dress.  He had ordered the meal, moreover:  oysters, clear green turtle, pompano en papillote, mallard duck au sang with coeur de palmier salad, bavaroise au chocolat, and a savoury invented by himself consisting of Toast Melba spread with mushrooms, anchovies, olives and pimento made into a paste.  This was covered with bay-leaves, on which was spread a mixture of caviar, raw onions, ginseng, and Bombay Duck, sprinkled lightly with powdered hashish.”“The wine list was equally elaborate.  Cocktails consisting of two teasepoonfuls of liqueur brandy, one of Curacoa, and one of laudanum preceded the repast.  With the oysters he caused Chablis to be served, with the soup Tokay, with the fish Chateau Yquem.  The duck was accompanied by Mumm Cordon Rouge 1904.  The sweet was enriched by a marvelous sauce with a basis of Creme de Cacao, and the savoury fortified with an astonishingly fine Burgundy of incomparable body and bouquet.  The coffee was Turkish, prepared by Simon himself at the table, and perfected by the addition of an aromatic consisting of essential oil of cedar-wood and ambergris.”“The liqueurs were Green Chartreuse of the original shipping, a particular Absinthe from a private still belonging to a friend of Simon Iff living in Switzerland among the crags of Jura, and an introuvable Metternich brandy.  With the nuts came Château Margaux, Port, and a Madeira dating from William the Fourth.”