Une Chartreuse 39.03%
⏳ Drinking Window
While highly expressive and rewarding upon release, this exceptional liqueur possesses an almost limitless aging potential, evolving beautifully over 10 to 30+ years.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Dark chocolate truffles, aged Comté cheese, pear tarte tatin
✨ Technical Specifications
Crafted in secrecy by the Carthusian Monks of the Grande Chartreuse, 'Une Chartreuse' 2020 is an exceptionally rare, confidential release that showcases the monks' unparalleled mastery of botanical blending. Bottled at a highly precise 39.03% ABV, this expression represents a gentler, incredibly harmonious departure from the traditional high-proof Green and Yellow expressions. It is crafted from a secret selection of the legendary 130 herbs, plants, and flowers, macerated in a grape-spirit base and aged in oak casks at the Aiguenoire distillery. The lower alcohol integration coaxes out remarkably delicate, ethereal aromas of lemon verbena, linden blossom, fresh mint, anise, and wild mountain honey, offering a silky, complex palate that whispers of the ancient alpine forests surrounding the monastery.
🍾 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.