Yellow 9eme Centenaire (((Bottled 2023)))
⏳ Drinking Window
While delicious immediately upon release, this exceptional liqueur has an indefinite lifespan and will continue to evolve, mellow, and gain complexity in the bottle for decades.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Dark chocolate desserts, apricot tart, artisanal blue cheese
✨ Technical Specifications
Created in 1984 to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the founding of the Carthusian Order by Saint Bruno in 1084, the Chartreuse 9eme Centenaire is an exceptional, highly coveted expression. This special cuvée is a masterfully selected blend of aged Yellow Chartreuse liqueurs, bottled at a slightly higher strength of 47% ABV to preserve and amplify its aromatic intensity. Handcrafted by the Carthusian Monks using their legendary, closely guarded recipe of 130 botanicals macerated in a grape spirit base, it undergoes extended aging in oak casks. The result is a liqueur of remarkable depth, balancing honeyed sweetness with an intricate tapestry of alpine herbs, saffron, anise, and citrus peel. It is presented in a distinctive, individually numbered bottle that replicates the design of historic 19th-century Chartreuse flacons.
🍾 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.