Nathan-Maister has got his hands on (and sold) only 400 bottles total in the past five years--most found in forgotten corners of hotel, restaurant and bar cellars.

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David Maister, a leading adviser to professional-service firms and a former academic at Harvard Business School, says that there is a yawning gap between what the big firms are offering and what their corporate clients want.

ECONOMIST: Spoilt for choice

The best distillers of their day, such as Pernod Fils and Edouard Pernod, were so concerned with knockoffs they used intricate wax seals and foils on their bottles, which, now 100 years old, are nearly impossible to fake, says David Nathan-Maister, a London rare-spirits dealer who specializes in absinthe.

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