Absinthe Distillery Returns to the Roots of Misunderstood Beverage

Marc Bernhard is serious about absinthe. The owner of Pacific Distillery, he’s been collecting varieties of the controversy-laden spirit for more than a decade, but it wasn’t until he tasted a 100-year-old bottle that he finally got it.

“It was wonderful,” Bernhard said.

Now, working from a recipe found in a distiller’s manual from the 1870s, Pacific Distillery makes Pacifique Absinthe, and Bernhard wants you to know it’s the real thing.

“It’s an exact absinthe as was made 100 years ago,” he said. “No shortcuts.”

The beverage, which won a gold medal at the 2011 San Francisco World Spirits Competition and was named one of 2010’s top 50 spirits by Wine Enthusiast magazine, stands in direct contrast to a makeshift wall of shame on the distillery’s shelves. There sits a row of European absinthes (many are not very good, Bernhard says) and another lineup of outright frauds — absinthe in name only.

“You can tell just from a taste that it’s garbage,” Bernhard said. “They are preying on the ignorance of the public.”

Ignorance surrounds the history of absinthe, which was a popular spirit in Paris around the turn of the century, but was banned shortly thereafter due to a scheme cooked up by the temperance movement and winemakers, both of whom had different motivations for securing a ban.

The primary charge leveled against absinthe—that it acts as a dangerous hallucinogen—persists.

“People always ask us about hallucinations,” Bernhard said. “It was all a big myth. Can you imagine 10 million Frenchmen hallucinating at the same time?”

It was only until recently that absinthe was made legal again in the United States, and soon after, Bernhard founded Pacific Distillery in 2008. In addition to absinthe, he makes Voyager Gin, a spirit crafted in the London Dry Style. It was awarded a double gold medal at the 2011 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

On a Friday morning at Pacific Distillery’s location near Woodinville-Duvall Road, the place was abuzz with activity, with distiller Mike Sloane hopping between a batch of absinthe and a batch of gin going through the distillery’s copper alembic still. Batches are small—gin yields about 30 cases in one batch, while absinthe is about 14—but it’s not for lack of demand, Sloane said.

“We can cook five days a week (to keep up),” he said.

The small batches allow the distillery plenty of control over the product.

“We can exercise extreme pickiness over the botanicals we use,” Bernhard said.

The distillery buys its herbs from the best available organic botanicals available at the time, and Bernhard even grows a significant portion of the wormwood, lemon balm and hyssop himself. Making a quality beverage starts with quality ingredients—just making small batches doesn’t ensure anything, he said.

For Bernhard, who still works full time at Boeing in the flight test department, Pacific Distillery is like a second full-time job. But even if it’s a lot of work, it puts him in pretty exclusive company.

“This is almost like the ultimate man cave,” Bernhard said. “(Almost) everyone in the United States is banned from distilling, but we’re paid to distill.”

Pacifique Absinthe and Voyager Gin are available in most Washington State liquor stores. The distillery welcomes visitors, but because its hours are irregular, it recommends emailing via its web site to make an appointment.