Awards and Controversy

The San Francisco World Spirit Awards were recently held (in San Francisco, as it happens), and it seems Matter-Luginbuhl AG/Absinthe.decame out winners, scoring medals for two different absinthes.

The SF World Spirit Awards are, in their own words, “the first comprehensive, international spirits judging ever held in the United States on an annual basis…Founded in 2000 by Anthony Dias Blue, the Executive Director of the San Francisco International Wine Competition and Carol Seibert, the Managing Director of the San Francisco International Wine Competition, the Spirits Competition continues to grow each year in entrants as well as in stature within the industry”. Judges for the competiton have been drawn from the upper eschelons of the US bars and clubs industry, distillers, journalists and editors and, oh dear… two ‘mixologists’. That term is rubbish. You’re a bartender, deal with it.

Anyway, my point is that the brains-trust behind the SF awards seems pretty secure, which cannot necessarily be said for those recently employed by Epicurious to ignorantly trash… pardon, review, the same absinthe which has just won an award.

A legitimate one, at that.

subscribe to read moreAt the awards held last weekend (15-16 March 2008), Markus Lion’s Duplais Verte (already a medal winning absinthe) won a silver medal, while Mansinthe, Lion’s project with Marilyn Manson, won gold. This is hardly surprising, given both labels are produced by a skilled distiller with a well respected track record, via Matter-Luginbuhl AG, a distillery which produces Duplais Verte, Blanche and Balance along with Absinthe Brevans, all under Lion’s direction and all very highly regarded by absintheurs in Europe, the US and Australia.In contrast to this, last month Epicurious, a highly popular online food and wine site began their own series of absinthe reviews.

Michael Y. Park, the journalist at the helm of these reviews, gathered “a group of tasters” to review several labels, amongst them Lucid, Kubler, Mansinthe and La Fee Parisienne. Now, these tasters could be knowledgable authorities on European spirits, or they could be… how do you say… special. With one taster eloquently remarking that Ted Breaux’s Lucid “looks like pee” we imagine this particular individual does not get asked to terribly many Whisky tastings. The nose was also described as “alcohol, armpit”. Special.

Mansinthe bore the brunt of the negativity, with one person describing its nose as being akin to “sewage water” and “yuck”, and that it “was not as colourful as the other [absinthes]“. Cut to their reviews of La Fee, a bog standard Ordinaire, oil-mixed absinthe, which we are assured has a “[r]ich anise scent, fresh, meadowy” and that the “licorice [flavour] is not overpowering”.Suffice to say, Absinthe.com.au finds no value whatsoever in Epicurious’ experiment in absinthe tasting, something which has done an extreme disservice to reputable absinthe makers with decades of experience and a highly regarded distilleries who consistently turn out expertly crafted labels.

We stand by our review of Mansinthe, a very well-made, accessible, balanced and thoroughly drinkable product. When tastings are conducted by groups who know nothing whatsoever about the constituents of a world class absinthe, let alone a bad one, then, frankly, they are talking out their arses.And that is our two cents. Congratulations on the medals, Markus. They are well deserved.