Tarragone Verte Fabiola -73
⏳ Drinking Window
Ready to drink now, with virtually indefinite aging potential. These historic mid-20th-century bottlings continue to soften, integrate, and develop extraordinary complexity in the bottle over many decades.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
dark chocolate desserts, blue cheese, roasted nuts
✨ Technical Specifications
The 'Tarragone Verte Fabiola' represents a legendary chapter in the history of Chartreuse, distilled during the monks' famous period of production in Tarragona, Spain. Following their expulsion from France in 1903, the Carthusian Monks established a distillery in this Spanish port city, producing liqueurs that developed a distinct cult following. The 'Fabiola' bottling, produced between 1967 and 1973, pays tribute to Dona Fabiola de Mora y Aragon on the occasion of her marriage to King Baudouin of Belgium. This expression is highly prized by collectors for its unique Spanish terroir, utilizing local spirits and botanicals that yielded a rounder, sweeter, and intensely aromatic profile compared to its French counterpart. Matured in oak casks, this historic green liqueur showcases an incredibly complex, evolving bouquet of anise, rosemary, mint, 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.