Reconstructing Absinthe

I only became aware of Absinthe fairly recently (~2001) and was struck by the incongruity of a beverage which is readily available in my local supermarket being surrounded by an air of mystique. What I did not know was that, for most of the 20th century, it's been banned in much of the world; bans were only lifted in the EU in 1988 and are still in force in the USA. Wired has an interesting article on microbiologist Ted Breaux's obsessive recreation of authentic absinthe.