CHARTREUSE - Green VEP - 1 Liter Bottle - Stake XXXX - 54%
The Order of the Chartreuse existed for more than 500 years when, in 1605, in a Chartreuse monastery in Vauvert, a small suburb of Paris, the monks received a gift from Duke François Hannibal d'Estrées: an ancient manuscript of an “Elixir » nicknamed “Elixir of Long Life”. This manuscript was probably the work of a 16th century alchemist with great knowledge of herbs and with the skill to assemble, infuse, macerate all 130 of them to form a perfectly balanced tonic. The recipe in the manuscript was so complex that only pieces were understood and used at Vauvert. At the beginning of the 18th century, the manuscript was sent to the Mother House of the Order, La Grande Chartreuse, in the mountains not far from Grenoble. The Apothecary of the Monastery, Brother Jérôme Maubec , eventually unraveled the mystery and, in 1737, wrote the practical formula for preparing the Elixir in 1764. In 1903, the French government nationalized the Chartreuse distillery and the monks were expelled . When it went bankrupt in 1929, the monks regained possession of the Chartreuse brand. They returned to their distillery, built in 1860 in Fourvoirie, not far from the Monastery, and resumed the production of real Chartreuse liqueurs. In 1935, Fourvoirie was almost destroyed by a landslide; manufacturing was transferred to Voiron where it is located today.
The selection, grinding and mixing of the secret herbs, plants and other medicinal plants used in the production of the liqueurs is carried out in the monastery by two monks. Once mixed, the ingredients are transported to Voiron where they are first macerated in carefully selected alcohol, then distilled. Finally, these liqueurs are aged for several years in huge oak barrels and placed in the aging cellar which has the longest maturation periods in the world.
A small portion of the liquor is selected for special treatment. This proportion of liqueur is aged for an additional period of time and, once the head distiller declares it ready for bottling, it is bottled and marketed as VEP Chartreuse (“ Exceptionally Extended Aging ”). Each bottle of VEP, a reproduction of that used in 1840, is individually numbered, wax sealed and presented in its own carefully fitted wooden box.
