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Swiss Court refuses Absinthe Appellation

It’s interesting to see how the Swiss Courts themselves overturned (on appeal from 11 producers in France, Germany and Switzerland) a Swiss Court decision to give Swiss Absinthe producers, a protected designated origin. It shows true justice in action, from the Swiss Courts, and in a real sense they can be proud of that, although I doubt the Val de Travers producers looking for local protection, will see it that way.

I’m an advocate of the legitimacy of protecting one’s own ideas and intellectual property, and I always saluted the Mexicans for protecting ‘Tequila’, the French for protecting ‘Champagne’ , ‘Burgundy’, ‘Cognac’, ‘Camembert’ etc etc, and I always wondered by the English were so dumb as not to protect Cheddar cheese over 70 years ago, but once the genie (or in this case, the Green Fairy) is let out of the lamp, it’s too late.

In the case of Absinthe, it’s over 100 years too late, and now Absinthe is made in numerous countries from Switzerland to France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, even Brazil etc etc. The Fairy flew away, long long ago, and no attempt by the Swiss to push her back into the bottle can be successful.