Emile Pernot

In 1889, Emile-Ferdinand Pernot — recently arrived from Fougerolles, where he had trained as a distiller — joined the Parrot brothers in Pontarlier to establish Émile Pernot et Cie. The timing put them at the height of the Pontarlier absinthe trade: by 1900, the town had 25 absinthe distilleries employing 38% of its workforce. Pernot survived the 1915 French ban (the firm pivoted to other liqueurs) and resumed absinthe production once the law allowed it. The distillery passed from father to son until 2005, when Emile and Odile Pernot sold the operation.

In 2009 production moved from the original Pontarlier site to the Cousin Jeune building at La Cluse et Mijoux, at the foot of the Château de Joux on the Swiss-French border. The current range carries multiple absinthe expressions — the Vieux Pontarlier reference at 65%, the Bourgeois at 55%, the Berthe de Joux at 56%, the Cousin Jeune at 65%, the Deniset Jeune at 56%, plus a 25% sweetened liqueur d'absinthe — and the unusual Liqueur de Sapin (fir-bud and mountain-plant maceration at 40%).