The Absinthe Forger: A True Story of Deception, Betrayal, and the World’s Most Dangerous Spirit

An astonishing true crime story about an eccentric grifter who blew up the lucrative black market for vintage bottles of the legendary drink of artistic renegades, absinthe . . . Thought to be hallucinogenic and banned globally for a century, absinthe is once again legal and popular. Yet it is still associated with bohemian lifestyles, just as when it was the favorite drink of avant-gardists like Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh and Baudelaire. And today, when vintage, pre-ban bottles are discovered, they can sell for exorbitant prices to private collectors. But such discoveries are increasingly rare. Which is why the absinthe demimonde of rich collectors was electrified when a mysterious bon vivant claimed to be in possession of a collection of precious, pre-ban bottles. Is his secret tranche of 100-year-old bottles real? And just who is the shadowy person selling them? And what about rumors of another secret cache, hidden away in an Italian palazzo? Journalist... Step into the exclusive world of the green fairy in this astonishing true crime story about an eccentric con man who blew up the black market with counterfeit absinthe. Absinthe, a elixir made of alcohol and herbs, is a booming business. From France to Japan, new absinthe distilleries are opening every year, with global trade expected to reach $44.3 billion by 2026. Yet it is still an underground culture, associated with mystery, romance, and bohemian lifestyles, in keeping with its popularity among the writers, artists, and other neer-do-wells of nineteenth-century France. First produced in 1792, the spirit, known as the green fairy, was banned worldwide by 1914 before the bans were gradually overturned beginning in 2007.Enter The Absintheur, a deadly-charismatic European art student whose real name we cant yet divulge. Inveigling his way into the private Facebook groups and wealthy Italian palazzos where the secret modern absinthe demimonde converges, he charmed some of the best minds (and palates) in the beverage world into thinking that he was selling them precious vintage pre-ban bottles, for years. How did he get away with it? The person who blew his cover, New York Times reporter Evan Rail, is the person who wrote this book.The Absinthe Forger pieces together The Absintheurs subterfuge, motivation, and hidden life story with the help of the absinthe connoisseurs who eventually proved his fraud while Evan reported on it. It shows how absinthe can transform a person and even connect drinkers with a deeper, often hidden sense of self. It relates the romantic and illicit history of absinthe, from its birth in Switzerland through its coming of age in France, and on to the spirits modern revival starting in the 1990s.Evan digs deep into the modern absinthe underground, whose members are still frantic to find the last remaining bottles of pre-ban absinthe, and he visits modern producers of the spirit, who have, in a generation, changed in status from daring-criminal bootleggers to sought-after celebrities. Ripe for a Netflix documentary, The Absinthe Forger is a compellingly bizarre crime drama that will make you never look at wormwood in the same way again.