Hand-crafted in the Birthplace of Absinthe

Absinthe was born in the small town of Couvet in the Val-de-Travers region of Switzerland in the 1790's. Legend has it that absinthe began as an all-purpose patent remedy created by a Dr. Pierre Ordinaire, a French doctor living in Couvet. His recipe was passed on to the Henriod sisters (also of Couvet), who sold absinthe as a medicinal elixir. Other accounts, however, state that the mother Henriod may have been making the elixir before Ordinaire’s arrival. In either case, a Major Dubied acquired the formula from the sisters and in 1797, with his son and son-in-law opened the first absinthe distillery in Couvet..... see more

La Clandestine

About two hundred years after the first birth of absinthe, Claude-Alain Bugnon, who had been born in the region but who had worked in the oil business, first became interested in the drinks enjoyed over generations by his ancestors. Like many families in the region, he started to make his "clandestine" absinthe at home, fighting for space in the laundry with his wife!

Starting in 2000, he gained a reputation that started to spread beyond Switzerland. Using a recipe that dated back to 1935, he developed a new absinthe that he dedicated to its creator, Charlotte. Americans discovered his "Clandestine La Bleue" (or CLB as some called it) through various… "channels of distribution."

And then in 2005, as absinthe developed throughout the world, Claude-Alain became the first distiller in the town where absinthe had been born to "go legal."

"Hand-crafted in the birthplace of absinthe," La Clandestine need no longer be a secret pleasure! .... see more