At the height of absinthe's popularity in France, 220 million litres of the spirit were distilled a year. Absinthe was all but wiped off the face of the earth in a series of bans which started in 1898 in the Republic of Congo. In 1999, I embarked on a serious campaign to preserve, and to build on what we had created with Bohemian absinth by distilling real absinthe, and if possible, restart production in France or Switzerland.