Certosini Grande Charteuse

Founded in 1084, the Ordre des Chartreux is currently one of the oldest order of Christianity. Father Bruno, born in Cologne in 1030, is the founder. In the dream he saw God who built a place in its glory in the heart of a mountain called “Chartreuse”, a place so sparsely inhabited that is nicknamed the “desert” seven stars would show him the path to get there. We are in June 1084 and Bruno recognizes the place where today stands the Chartreuse the place that God has given. In 1605 Marshal Estrées gives to the monks of the Charterhouse of Vauvert in Paris a manuscript that reveals the formula for an elixir of life of unknown origin. At that moment, in fact, only pharmacists and monks possessed the necessary knowledge to work in plants. In 1737, the Grande Chartreuse Monastery (near the city of Grenoble) decides to do a study: the Grande-Chartreuse pharmacist assigned this task. He can definitely set the formula for Elixir Végétal Grande Chartreuse. In 1810, Emperor Napoleon decides that the secret recipe dell’elixir must be submitted to the Minister of Interior as the elixir will be managed by the State. Mr. LIOTARD, who had been given the recipe by the monks imprisoned by the revolutionaries, the Ministry responds to the manuscript on the notice to sell the secret recipe, putting back the word “Rejected”. Following the death of Mr. Liotard, the documents returned to the Monastery of Grande Chartreuse in which the monks returned in 1816. In 1838, the formula has been adapted to produce a sweeter and less alcoholic liqueur, Chartreuse Jaune, 40 degrees. In 1903, the Carthusians were expelled from France. However, they operate a distillery in Tarragona in Spain for the manufacture of liquor. During this same period, the French state sells their brand with a liquor establishing the new brand “Ferme de la Grande Chartreuse.” The company, whose production has nothing to do with the real Chartreuse ceases its activities in 1929. The monks resumed their distillation in France at their former Fourvoirie distillery built in 1860 at the Monastery of the Grande Chartreuse. The monks work in the greatest secrecy and are only to be familiar with the details of production. Today as yesterday, the formula remains a mystery that modern methods of investigation can not penetrate. The liquor produced by the Fathers Chartreux contain no chemical additives. Their colors come from the same plants used. If you extend the aging, you get a quality Chartreuse particularly noteworthy; called “Chartreuse Vep” (Aging exceptional extension). The production, necessarily limited, in bottles of 50 cl, 1 liter, which reproduces those used in 1840. Go to the basement of Chartreuse is going back in time: it seems to be in the cellars of a great wine producer. Now there is nobody aging liquor.