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 Evan Rail sets out to discover the truth about the enigmatic dealer and the secret stashes. Along the way, he drinks with absintheurs frantically chasing down the pre-bans, visits modern distillers who have seen their status rise from criminal bootleggers to sought-after celebrities, and relates the legendary history of absinthe, from its birth in Switzerland through its coming of age in France, and on to its modern revival.

Evan Rail writes about food, drink, and travel for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, Saveur, BeerAdvocate, Smithsonian Travel, National Geographic Travel, Fodor’s, *Wallpaper, and the Lonely Planet’s Global Beer Tour. His monthly “Free Pour” column at the popular site VinePair has been nominated for the International Association of Culinary Professionals Awards.

Evan has appeared on several television programs, most notably showing Anthony Bourdain around the world of Czech food and drink on the television show No Reservations and drinking Czech beer during an interview with Phil Black on CNN. He has explained what it is like to bathe in beer on the Discovery Channel’s How Stuff Works and been quoted on where to drink in Prague in USA Today. Radio interviews with Evan have appeared on the BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Prague, and Hungarian National Radio. He regularly records podcasts for Good Beer Hunting, where he works as international editor.

Evan’s poems and essays have appeared in The New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement, Poetry Review, Agni, Metre, and Zyzzyva.