George Rowley is a British entrepreneur who is credited with starting the absinthe

Absinthe

Absinthe is historically described as a distilled, highly alcoholic beverage. It is an anise-flavoured spirit derived from herbs, including the flowers and leaves of the herb Artemisia absinthium, commonly referred to as "grande wormwood", together with green anise and sweet fennel...

 revival in the popular market.

Rowley was born in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, started his career within insurance and moved to Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

 in the early 1990s to assist run a local subsidiary.

It was in Prague that he first experienced both Czech beer

Czech beer

Beer in the Czech Republic has a long and important history. The first brewery is known to have existed in 1118. The city of Brno had the right to brew beer from the 12th century, and the two cities most associated with Czech beer, Plzeň and České Budějovice , had breweries in the 13th...

 and absinth, and he launched several alcoholic drinks ventures when he moved back to England.

In 1996, he founded Bohemia Beer House Ltd. (later BBH Spirits) and in 1998 launched Czech absinth in the UK and his action became one of the catalysts for the resurgence of absinthe in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and the world. He also launched eAbsinthe, then the world's first absinthe e-tailer, and now a brand portal. In 2000, with the assistance of Marie-Claude Delahaye, founder and curator of the Absinthe Museum, Auvers-sur-Oise, France, he launched his own brand, La Fée Absinthe

La Fée Absinthe

La Fée Absinthe is a brand of absinthe; it is a highly alcoholic, anise-flavored, distilled spirit containing the herb wormwood...

, the first traditional distilled absinthe commercially produced in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 since the 1915 ban, and now claimed by its owner to be the global brand leader.

External links

• LaFeeAbsinthe.com — Official La Fée Absinthe website.
• Daily Telegraph Article June 2001 - An article in one of the UK's top daily newspapers about the absinthe renaissance and the launch of the Moulin Rouge!
  Moulin Rouge!
  Moulin Rouge! is a 2001 romantic jukebox musical film directed, produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. Following the Red Curtain Cinema principles, the film is based on the Orphean myth, La Traviata, and La Bohème...
  
  film..