Absinthe Loses Battle for Swiss Brand Protection Like Emmentaler

Absinthe, hailed by nineteenth-century Paris artists and literati, won’t join the ranks of Emmentaler and Gruyere cheese as a protected Swiss product, a court has found.

Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court said the labels “absinthe,” “La Bleue” and “Fee Verte” can’t be used exclusively by producers in the Val-de-Travers region near the French border, where the beverage made from wormwood has been produced for more than two centuries. The green drink was popular among writers such as Oscar Wilde and Ernest Hemingway for its supposed psychedelic qualities.