Tarragone Jaune -85
⏳ Drinking Window
This historic bottling is fully mature and at its peak, capable of maintaining its extraordinary complexity and drinking beautifully for decades to come.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Dark chocolate tart, Blue cheese, Almond biscotti
✨ Technical Specifications
The legendary 'Tarragone Jaune' represents a fascinating chapter in the history of Chartreuse. Following their expulsion from France in 1903, the Carthusian Monks established a distillery in the Catalan port city of Tarragona, Spain, where they continued to produce their mystical liqueurs until 1989. The bottlings from the 1973 to 1985 era are highly coveted by collectors worldwide. Crafted from the secret recipe of 130 botanicals, this yellow expression is sweeter and milder than its green sibling, characterized by prominent notes of saffron, honey, anise, and soft mountain herbs. The unique climate of Tarragona and the use of local Spanish spirits for maceration imparted a distinct, warmer character to these bottlings. Over decades of bottle aging, this liqueur has undergone a magical transformation, integrating its sugars and alcohol into a seamless, silky, and incredibly complex elixir.
🍾 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.