Tarragona Fabriquee Green -85
⏳ Drinking Window
Extremely long-lived. This historic liqueur is fully mature and will continue to drink beautifully and evolve for several decades.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Dark chocolate desserts, strong blue cheese, wild game dishes
✨ Technical Specifications
The legendary 'Tarragona Fabriquee' Green Chartreuse represents a fascinating chapter in monastic history. Following their expulsion from France in 1903, the Carthusian Monks established a distillery in Tarragona, Spain, where they continued to produce their enigmatic elixir until 1989. This bottling, spanning the 1973-1985 production era, is highly coveted by collectors for its distinct Spanish character. Utilizing the secret recipe of 130 botanicals macerated in a grape-based spirit, the Tarragona expressions are celebrated for a slightly sweeter, rounder profile than their French counterparts, influenced by the warm Mediterranean climate and the local Spanish brandy base used for distillation. Over decades of bottle aging, the fiery 55% ABV mellows into an incredibly complex, harmonious tapestry of anise, mint, rosemary, pine, and warm baking spices.
🍾 About the Producer
Chartreuse represents one of the world's most legendary and enigmatic spirit traditions, rooted in an alchemical manuscript for an 'elixir of long life' presented to the Carthusian monks by François Annibal d'Estrées in 1605. Brother Jérôme Maubec and Brother Antoine spent decades unraveling its formula, establishing the Élixir Végétal in 1764 and Green Chartreuse in 1840. While production historically migrated from Fourvoirie to Tarragona during monastic expulsion, and later Voiron, primary distillation moved to the Aiguenoire facility in Entre-Deux-Guiers in 2018. Surrounded by the limestone massifs of the Prealps, only two designated Carthusian monks hold the complete secret formula, overseeing the selection, weighing, and blending of 130 alpine herbs, plants, and botanicals. The complex multi-stage macerations and copper pot distillations age in colossal uncharred oak foudres, creating peerlessly complex liqueurs capable of decades of bottle maturation. Benchmark expressions include the intensely herbal Green Chartreuse (55% ABV), saffron-tinged Yellow Chartreuse (43% ABV), and extended-cellared V.E.P. bottlings.