SIP OR MIX - STAND C106

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Here is the full portfolio we'll be exhibiting: (the hyperlinks are to reviews)

SW4 London Dry Gin  & SW4 Batch 47 London Dry Gin

St Nicholas Abbey Unaged, White Rum

St Nicholas Abbey 10 Year Old Rum

Combier Kummel (1880's)

Combier l'Original Triple Sec (1834)

Royal Combier (1920s)

Combier Elixir (1852)

Jade Perique Tobacco Liquer

Jade Nouvelle Orleans Absinthe

Jade 1901 Absinthe

Jade V.S. 1898 Absinthe

Jade Edouard Absinthe

La Maison Fontaine Chocolat

La Maison Fontaine Blanche

La Maison Fontaine Verte

Dale DeGroff's Pimento Aromatic Bitters

We will have many of our Brand Owners on hand throughout the show and several Guest Bar Tenders.

La Maison Fontaine Absinthe at The Box, Soho

If you haven't heard, The Box recently opened in London's Soho, (where have you been?) Since it opened it has been splashed all over the papers with London's glitterati getting papped outside - http://www.metro.co.uk/ 22nd February 2011 with many more partying on the inside - www.thisislondon.co.uk (Evening Standard) 22nd February 2011. Indeed, even before it opened its doors it was seriously news worthy - www.guardian.co.uk Friday 28th January 2011.

Apologies for the rubbish pictures but they just don't have any bright lights in there and given they have a NO camera, NO phone, NO Blackberry policy - I was lucky to get anything....

With its decadent mix of Burlesque, Cabaret and Vaudeville acts on offer it is an obvious place to try the delights of La Maison Fontaine Absinthe..... We've installed the LMF Fountain upstairs, so if and when you are lucky enough to find yourself in The Box - do take a wander up there.....and look for this door to venture through....

http://www.theboxsoho.com/

La Maison Fontaine, Ed's Christmas Party, the new Shunt and Jimmy Wales.

On Sunday 19th December Ed Saperia hosted one of his amazing Acid Jam parties, "You won't survive outside, not on your own" was held at the new Shunt on Bermondsey Street to celebrate the holidays and raise money for Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Some of the fun included; a mulled wine hot tub, mulled wine (not the same source you'll be relieved to know), barbecue, great live bands, jamming room stuffed full of instruments, edible installations, hay bails, comedy, pegs (you had to be there), Christmas trees everywhere, hot cider, La Maison Fontaine Absinthe Bar and The Machine!


We were very pleased indeed to be invited to host a La Maison Fontaine Absinthe Bar and even more pleased to be given the upstairs of The Machine. If you have not yet been to the Shunt warehouse on Bermondsey Street, check it out! We all highly recommend it:

http://www.shunt.co.uk/

The Machine refers to a bespoke theatre set for the production of The Shunt Company show "Money" (I haven't seen the play yet but it's high on my 'to do' list - if they bring it back...) it's a massive construction on three floors - some of which are see through. We were on the top floor and could see down into the jamming room on the second floor - awesome!

We decked the bar out with lights, a fountain and La Maison Fontaine, providing revellers with the choice of a classic serve or a Pontarlier Mule - all the proceeds are going to Wikipedia, naturally!

The thing that made it really special for me was the people. Everyone I met was really genuine, friendly, open minded and agreeable - they were all just so bloody nice! So a big shout of thanks has to go out to Ed, all the Shunt team - Nigel, Will, Andrea, Daniel, Dan and the rest..., Madaleine, Nicola, Caroline, Manfred, Daryl, Clayton and Alex for helping! With a very special thanks to Jimmy Wales - he turned up to the party where others had failed due to the snow and happily partied with us all evening, he also posed for a squillion photographs.... what a gent!


Did I mention the edible installation? This is it - a huge edible snow scene with Christmas trees, yule logs, marshmallows, candy floss..... At several points there were also bubbling vats of dry ice billowing out white vapour - incredible!
for more info please visit:
http://www.fontaineabsinthe.com/home/agecheck
and
http://www.vanquishwine.com/

La Maison Fontaine Infusion Competition - Extended Deadline!

This was a tasting we did recently in Gerry's. Yet again the infusion proved to be a major success! In fact, given the interest in general, we've decided to extend the La Maison Fontaine Infusion Competition deadline to the end of April 2011.

Given how much bar tenders are loving the La Maison Fontaine fountains we will also include a few amongst the prizes.....

The only rule is to use La Maison Fontaine with your infusion. Once you are happy with your infusion let us know and we'll check it out before the deadline..

To find out more in general about the Competition please go to this earlier update:

http://deliciousdrinksandspirits.blogspot.com/2010/09/la-maison-fontaine-infusion-competition.html

Get in touch if you'd like La Maison Fontaine in your bar..... Jenny@vqwine.com

Giles @ Shochu makes a last couple of drinks...

I'm always sorry to hear of a favourite bartender leaving a favourite bar but that's progress for you! On Friday 29th October 2010 Giles Cowen will be leaving the Shochu bar at Roka for good. Needless to say I hot tailed it down there last night to catch up with Giles and share some La Maison Fontaine Absinthe with him before he left. It's always interesting to have a conversation with bartenders about Absinthe, so many myths to explode! Absinthe should never be set on fire, it doesn't make you mad, it's not hallucinogenic and there's a scientific reason for the high alcohol strength....etc....etc.

Although Giles is not a massive fan of anise he was very pleasantly surprised by the smoothness and complexity of La Maison Fontaine, inspired he made a drink:

Purple Rain

25cl La Maison Fontaine
25cl Gin
15cl Cherry Brandy
10cl fresh lemon juice
5-10cl sugar syrup

Shake all ingredients over ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Lemon zest as garnish.

This was really very easy to drink and now Giles was warmed up he ventured onto something very different indeed.

Snow Fairy

25cl La Maison Fontaine
25cl fresh cream
15cl Cartron white chocolate liqueur
5-10cl almond syrup
5cl sugar syrup
Fresh mint leaves

Bruise the fresh mint with the sugar then add all the other ingredients and shake the hell out of it. Fine strain into a chilled martini glass and add a mint garnish.

I'm not a massive fan of creamy cocktails but this was very well balanced and reminiscent of mint chocolate ice cream. A Snow Fairy is the sort of drink where you look at the ingredients and think maybe it shouldn't work - but it does!

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ArtSet, Frieze Art Fair and La Maison Fontaine Absinthe

The affection for Absinthe amongst the great artists of the 18th and early 19th centuries is well documented, not least in some of their art. It's not surprising then that La Maison Fontaine - a traditionally distilled, artisan Absinthe with a contemporary twist - would be involved in both reviving the interest in true Absinthe and hanging out with the up and coming ArtSet in the early 21st Century!

Monday the 11th October saw the launch of Frieze Art Fair week and ArtSet organised an event at The Haymarket Hotel with La Maison Fontaine as a guest for the guests. We had fountains ready for both The Fontaine of Youth and a perfect serve of iced water with or without sugar depending on the palate preference.

ArtSet is a contemporary arts membership circle that focuses on creating access and exposing members to the London art scene through private gallery openings, curator-led tours of museum exhibitions, artist talks, art film screenings and studio visits. ArtSet aims to educate its members and provide them with the necessary tools to view art works critically and thoughtfully within a comfortable, engaging and social setting. The fact that their inaugural event was held in the Pool Room of the Haymarket Hotel would be testament to that!

The video installations were by Nicole Cohen who was showing her work for the first time in London. Although traditionally trained in painting and drawing, today Cohen primarily uses the concept of collage and video to question the rules of social etiquette, performance anxiety and critically examine expected behaviour in private life. Both the works 'How to Make Your Windows Beautiful (2007) and Sunday Morning (2007) were completely absorbing as each moved the observer through a private human space with an incongruous landscape as a backdrop. This layering effect gives each piece a strangely haunting and 3d effect which I'd highly recommend a viewing of.

Nicole is an American born artist now based in Berlin and as well as being a very creative and innovative artist she's also a rather lovely lady!

Later in the evening I introduced her and the ArtSet crowd to La Maison Fontaine and guided them though the history and production of Absinthe, expelling many myths in the process. As always La Maison Fontaine was extremely well received with the Fontaine of Youth proving to be particularly popular.

It was a real pleasure to meet so many creative and receptive people and share both the truth about Absinthe and La Maison Fontaine!

If you'd like to find out more about ArtSet please email Fernanda at artsetintl@gmail.com

If you'd like to find out more about the truth behind Absinthe and try La Maison Fontaine please email me at Jenny@vqwine.com

La Maison Fontaine Infusion Competition!

Boutique Bar Show was a major success for La Maison Fontaine Absinthe. The Fountains stopped people in their tracks and the Fontaine of Youth infusion generated a lot of interest from top people in the industry. Many had wished they had thought of it first but we're pleased to say it was created with La Maison Fontaine Absinthe specifically in mind with the help of Allan Gage. Due to the phenomenal interest generated at Boutique Bar Show we have decided to create a competition for the best infusion for La Maison Fontaine!

The best will be featured on the http://www.fontaineabsinthe.com/ web site and of course there will be a great prize with the results announced in 2011. Get in touch if you'd like to participate and be at the forefront of this new wave of interest in artisinal Absinthe and contemporary perfect serves!

Jenny@vqwine.com

020 7529 4308

bonjour@fontaineabsinthe.com

FACEBOOK - La Maison Fontaine Absinthe UK

The Fontaine of Youth

•1.5L Fountain with iced still mineral water
•1 lemon sliced
•Peel of 1 cucumber cut into strips
•6 mint sprigs
•Ice cubes
Fill the fountain with all ingredients and allow to stand for 15mins before serving. Traditional serve (35ml Fontaine) with or without sugar as preferred. Drip contents of the Fontaine fountain to taste, as slowly as possible.

Rui and Jemma behind the Vanquish Stand at Boutique Bar Show.

La Maison Fontaine meets The New Sheridan Club

On August 21st La Maison Fontaine met The New Sheridan Club members at their The Far Pavilions event held at Salon D'Ete in Duke Street. Live Swing Music was performed by Twin and Tonic and the New Sheridan Club members looked stunning in their finery, particularly with the back drop of Salon D'Ete. If you are unaware of either I'd recommend you check them both out!

http://www.salondeteclub.com/

http://www.newsheridanclub.co.uk/about.htm