Tarragone Fabriquee Yellow -85
⏳ Drinking Window
This historic bottling is fully matured and ready to enjoy now, though its high alcohol and sugar content allow it to be cellared indefinitely without decline.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Dark chocolate truffles, blue cheese, peach tarte tatin
✨ Technical Specifications
The legendary 'Tarragone' bottlings of Chartreuse represent a fascinating chapter in monastic history, born from the Carthusian Monks' exile from France to Tarragona, Spain, in 1903. Even after their return to France, production in Spain continued until 1989. The Yellow Tarragone from the 1973-1985 era is a highly coveted relic of this period. Crafted using the closely guarded recipe of 130 botanicals macerated in a grape spirit base and aged in oak casks, this expression is softer and sweeter than its green counterpart, with saffron providing its signature golden hue. Over decades of bottle aging, these historic spirits undergo a remarkable evolution, transforming the intense herbal and anise notes into a sublime, integrated harmony of honeyed citrus, dried wildflowers, beeswax, and delicate herbal tea.
🍾 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.