Tarragone Fabriquee Green - 85
⏳ Drinking Window
Ready to drink now. Due to its high alcohol volume and sugar content, this historic liqueur is virtually indestructible and will continue to hold its exceptional complexity indefinitely.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
dark chocolate desserts, strong blue cheese, rich game terrines
✨ Technical Specifications
The legendary 'Tarragone' bottlings of Chartreuse represent 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 manufacture their world-famous liqueurs until 1989. This specific Green Chartreuse, bottled between 1973 and 1985, is highly prized by spirits collectors worldwide. Crafted using the closely guarded recipe of 130 botanicals macerated in a high-proof alcohol base, the Tarragona expressions are celebrated for utilizing local Spanish distillates and water, which imparted a distinctively rich, slightly sweeter, and intensely complex character. Over decades of bottle aging, the initial fiery herbal punch of the young spirit has mellowed into an exquisite, harmonious tapestry of candied mint, anise, rosemary, saffron, and warm honeyed botanicals.
🍾 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.