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Chartreuse V.E.P. (Both Green and Yellow!)
Estimated Retail Price $149 per bottle. Thursday we're pouring an ounce of each, side-by-side for $6.50
If You Love Spirits Do Not Miss This Thursday!
Carthusian Monks are not known to be the life of the party, but this stuff is outrageous.
You may know the herbaceous liquor Chartreuse. You may not know about Chartreuse V.E.P. (Vieillissement Exceptionnellement Prolongé) VEP are special bottlings of Chartreuse (both yellow and green) that spend many years aging in wood barrels.
Back in the late 80's, I had always thought the one or two Chartreuse drinkers at my NJ bar to be strange; and to be honest, they were. However, it was the hubris of the young smarty-pants bartender (me), which prevented me from correctly identifying the problem between Chartreuse and me. You see, I was the problem. I was just not sophisticated enough a drinker to step outside my rather narrow frame of reference. My mind was not open.
In my first sojourn to France however, VEP blew my mind right open! The extra cask-aging provided a roundness and a depth familiar to drinkers of cognac. In addition, the flavors are all concentrated and deepened and the finish goes on seemingly forever.
The first product of the Carthusian monks was a medicinal elixir described below. In 1764 they created what is today’s Green Chartreuse, (55% alcohol) a milder and smoother form of the elixir. Then in 1838 they created Yellow Chartreuse, (40% alcohol) an even milder, smoother and sweeter liqueur. Thursday we will pour one ounce of each the Green and Yellow VEP for a total of $6.50. Open your mind and taste!
Chartreuse and the Carthusian Monks
In 1605, Francois Hannibal d’Estrees, Marshal of the King’s Artillery, had given the Carthusians an already ancient manuscript titled "Elixir of Long Life." In 1737, when the esoteric manuscript was finally deciphered, the monks became distillers. Their first product was the medicinal elixir described in that original manuscript.
Although it apparently did not prolong life, with 130 herbs and spices infused into a base of 71 percent wine alcohol, it did have many curative powers. The monks became distillers of this medicinal elixir.
When the French Revolution erupted in 1789, the Carthusian monks (like all religious orders in France) were scattered from their monastery. The manuscript was almost taken from the Carthusians in these turbulent times. One of the Carthusian fathers concealed the manuscript on his person but was arrested by the authorities. He was sent to gaol in Bordeaux. Fortunately, his gaolers did not search him and he managed to slip the precious document to a priest due to be released from prison.
The need to survive forced the new savior to sell the manuscript. The new owner surrendered it, as required by Emperor Napoleon, to the "Secret Remedies Commission."
Again, fortune intervened: the commission, finding the recipe too complex, stamped it "Rejected". Some years after Napoleon’s demise, the Carthusians were welcomed back to France, regained possession of the manuscript and resumed distilling the elixir and liqueurs.
By the beginning of the 20th century, millions of bottles of Chartreuse liqueurs were being sold all over the world. Even the Russian Tsar, Nicolas II, insisted that a bottle of Chartreuse be always on his table. The worldwide reputation of the Chartreuse liqueurs gave the Carthusians a high profile in France and the government coveted the monk’s profits.
In 1904, the French government nationalized both the monastery and the distillery. The monks, unwilling to give up the secret of making Chartreuse, fled to a Carthusian monastery in Tarragona, Spain where they built a new distillery.
The French government brought chemists, botanists and other experts to the distillery and to the monastery where, in an attempt to recreate Chartreuse, they searched the bins where the plants, herbs and spices had been stored. Despite this massive effort, they failed. The public wanted the genuine liqueur and ignored the counterfeit beverage made by the government’s company.
With a lack of sales, the French company, counterfeiting Chartreuse, could not survive. Local citizens in the area of the monastery bought the failed company and returned it, as a gift, to the Carthusians. Today, although the monastery has been designated a national monument by the French government, the monks are allowed to live there.
Three of the monks, who have been trained by their predecessors in the art of distilling Chartreuse, occasionally leave their cells for a short period of time and make the liqueurs. They then return to the solitude of their cells.
It is the labors of these three monks that provide the Carthusians with the sustenance to pursue their quiet lives of meditation and prayer.
From Classic Communications of Australia
Next Week's Spirits Project: Glenfiddich 1975!
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