During the years of prohibition, Lucien Fornoni acquired a second-hand still from a friend and began distilling in quiet discretion. Guided by a recipe transmitted by a resident of Travers, he learned progressively, gesture after gesture, the discipline and patience required by the craft.
Nearly a decade before legalization, an episode briefly unsettled this discreet routine. Returning home one evening, Lucien found an unfamiliar man waiting in his kitchen. Suspecting an inspection, his wife firmly refused to sell him any absinthe. The visitor, however, had no official purpose; he was simply seeking a liter of the elusive spirit, offering a sum that reflected both its rarity and its value. The exchange, ultimately concluded, remains a telling fragment of that era, when absinthe circulated cautiously, sustained by trust and conviction.
With legalization in 2005, Lucien joined two fellow distillers to obtain a shared concession. Together they began distilling openly, each preserving his own recipes while pooling knowledge and resources for this new chapter.
