Today, for a change, Wine-Searcher’s Editor Don Kavanagh tastes an historic liquer, Chartreuse Verte, the classic Green Chatreuse Liqueur.
Chartreuse is a well-known and widely distributed herbal liqueur produced by Carthusian monks in the Chartreuse Monastery in alpine southeastern France. The drink has undergone a renaissance in recent decades and is produced in standard green and yellow forms as well as various limited production labels known as Special Cuvées. It is one of a few spirits drinks that is known to change with age.
Although the abbey and order of the Chartreuse monks dates back to 1084 the production of Chartreuse only dates back to 1764. Known as the Elixir or Eau-de-Vie of Chartreuse, its composition took over a century to perfect.
The order and its monastery is broken up by the state in the French Revolution of the late 18th Century although, following the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, the order is granted permission to return the monastery and rebuild both the building and the order. Production of the Elixir restarted in earnest and by 1840 the monks have refined the recipes of what will become the standard green and yellow Chartreuse liqueurs.
From a predominantly local consumer base, Chartreuse expanded its distribution, reaching across much of southern and western France as well as into Italy, Switzerland and Austria. An increase in popularity sees the order forced to move production to the nearby town of Saint-Laurent-du-Pont but also sees a growth in counterfeits and copies.
Further religious conflict at the very beginning of the 20th Century saw the monks again expelled from their holdings with production moving to Tarragona in northeastern Spain. Production also restarted in France (this time in Marseille) by the 1920s.
However, the Tarragona distillery is bombed in the Spanish Civil War in 1938 and, despite the order once again being given permission to return to the monastery in 1940, the Second World War is a period of great flux. By the 1950s, production recovers both in Tarragona and later in Voiron (near the monastery in the Chartreuse Massif), and the brand enjoys considerable success until sales begin to flag in the 1980s and 1990s.
The brands fortunes have revived somewhat in the 21st Century, expanding its traditional audience and regaining a certain insiders’ appeal. Production is now overseen at the Aiguenoire distillery in Entre-Deux-Guiers, just north of Saint-Laurent-du-Pont.
Chartreuse is produced from the distillation of sugar beet spirit (green) or grape-based spirit (yellow) and the subsequent maceration and further distillation of over 100 plants, flowers, bark, roots and spices. These are aged in wooden vats and blended to requirements. Only two monks ever know the final recipe.
Three main labels are produced: green Chartreuse at 55-percent alcohol by volume (abv); the slghtly sweeter 40-percent abv yellow Chartreuse; and the medicinal 74-percent abv (138-proof) Elixir Végétal which is predominantly used for treating ailments.
Further releases include the Special Cuvées range of blended liqueurs and the Exceptional Cuvées of extra-aged green and yellow Chartreuses.
Annual production of the core three spirits is around 1.5 million bottles. The spirits are produced by the monastery’s offshoot company, Chartreuse Diffusion.
Learn more about this liquer, it pricing and its availability on The Wine-Searcher Website:
#winesearcher #liquertasting #whiskeysearcher #greenchartreuse #chartreusevert #carthusian