SF World Spirits Competition: results?

The San Francisco World Spirits Competition was held on March 15 and 16, and while the results have been released to entrants, I'm curious to see the complete list after yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle blurb mentioned that ten absinthes competed, and the winner-- "Vieux Pontarlier," distilled at the Emile Pernot distillery-- is not even on the market yet. Searches for "vieux pontarlier absinthe" find an anisette produced by Emile Pernot, with a note at Liqueurs de France that the product currently available is not the absinthe which will soon be released under the same name.

Update: Results were posted by the organizers, though to see award winners for absinthe, you must click through a finicky menu-- results reposted here (click on the image to the right) for easy viewing. Surprised to see La Fée winning a gold-- that's some lousy absinthe-- looks like the kind of competition where everybody wins.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here's hoping everybody's having a great day with friends, family, good eats, and a glass of the good stuff, whatever that might be for you!

I've enjoyed a few absinthes with JS, starting with the St. George, then comparing to Edouard, Duplais Balance, a few others. St. George stands out in a crowd-- pronounced aftertastes are new to us, must be stinging nettles and/or meadowsweet. You would pick it first in a blind tasting lineup-- there's nothing like it. It benefitted from a cube of sugar after trying them all at 2:1, then watered to 3:1 or so. We kept coming back to "medicinal" and "greens" for flavor cues-- sort of vegetal, tea-like.

Thrilling that an American absinthe is as unique as this, appropriate that it comes from the Bay Area-- first had stinging nettles at the Chez Panisse Café-- it's one of the original gourmet ghetto ingredients-- chuckled when I first saw it listed on St. George's label!

For a little holiday cheer, try coming up with a new absinthe cliché/pun with this handy form:

AbsenceAbsinthe Abstinence Absinthetinence makestakeswakessnakesshakesfakesbakesrakesrakeslakes the a my your Yoda's any every no me you hearttartfartsmartartcartpartshartBonaparte growhoshowmowsnowblowMargaret ChogorowsewtowwoeyoEndomellowJell-oyellowfellow fonderyondersquanderponderwanderlongertranspondercollanderanacondaRhondaHondacondorblonderasunderthunder

Or, make your own:

.

If you come up with a good one, please leave it in the comments!

Update 11:30 PM: also a little Kübler, Lucid, Nouvelle Orleans, Marteau,...

IWSC 2007: Absinthe Awards

Award winners for Absinthe from the 2007 International Wine and Spirits Competition helps to explain why PF1901 and Verte Suisse supplies have been decimated:

Country	Award	Category	Winning Spirit	Producer
France		Absinthe - France - 65-70%	Jade Verte Suisse	Jade Liqueurs
Switzerland		Absinthe - Switzerland - 50-55%	La Fée XS Absinthe Suisse	BBH Spirits
Switzerland		Absinthe - Switzerland - 60-72%	Absinthe Duplais Balance 60%	Oliver Matter & Markus Lion
France		Absinthe - France - 65-70%	Jade PF 1901	Jade Liqueurs
France		Absinthe - France - 65-70%	La Fée Parisian Absinthe	BBH Spirits
Switzerland		Absinthe - Switzerland - 50-55%	Absinth Studer	Studer & Co AG

Drab Mayko Absinthe Photos

Lovely absinthe photo set on Flickr by "Drab Makyo" includes Jades, Eichelbergers, both Fougerolles(es?), and a Duplais. They're a nice contrast to all the burning absinthe shot photos on Flickr.

LiquorSnob Absinthe Reviews

The folks over at Liquor Snob have posted astute reviews of two Artemisias (La Clandestine and La Capricieuse) and three Duplais' (Blanche, Balance, and Verte). They preferred La Clandestine over La Capricieuse (as do I-- coriander?), and the Blanche was their favorite of the Duplais' for "day to day" drinking.

Curious how they'd compare the Duplais Verte to La Clandestine, but I'm psyched that that they picked the Duplais Blanche over the vertes for, well, political reasons: I think absinthe can only enter the U.S. market if people grow to think of it as more related to gin (martini==cool) than to Everclear (purple punch==ambulance). In addition to colored absinthes being more strongly flavored, demanding green absinthe makes the market too susceptible to the new horrible Czech "absinth tradition" since the concentrations needed for properly colored absinthe to enter the U.S. market (~68%?) won't fly, so to be green, it would have to be artificially colored. Tough pickle...

Duplais on Liquor Snob

Liquor snob post about Duplais winning a gold medal at the 2006 IWSC, but no actual review... strange for them! They probably thought it best to keep themselves legit with "we'd really like to get our hands on a bottle" and "from what we're hearing..." They do link to Absinthe-Distribution.com, of course...;)

Update: Yep, they ordered it, and they got their shipment of the 3-pack; looking forward to reading their reviews. I bet they prefer the blanche.