Why Paris Wine Bars Are Obsessed With a 400-Year-Old Monk-Made Liqueur
Chartreuse, a case study in how scarcity and authenticity can drive desirability
Chartreuse, the centuries-old herbal liqueur made by monks, has become a luxury obsession in Paris's natural wine bars. From giant jeroboams in windows to tableside orders, the spirit's scarcity and authenticity are driving its desirability, turning a niche digestif into a status symbol.
This was the city that, some 25 years ago, put natural wine bars on the map. Today those same bars have a new obsession: a 400-year-old digestif made by monks.
- wesleyd
Once upon a time, many years ago, I was working in a bar in rural Ireland. I was 16 or 17, I was alone in the place, it was a slow afternoon, I was crouched down, putting bottles on shelves, idly wondering what the strongest drink - highest ABV - in this place was. Most spirits were about 40%, many less, some slightly more. At that moment I happened to look up and I swear a beam of sunshine at that moment lit on a bottle of green chartreuse above my head, highlighting the “55% ABV” on the label. In my memory, music also chimed. I just had to taste this stuff, so I poured a tiny drop into a glass. O. M. G. It. Was. _Vile_. To this day, it is my benchmark for how bad something tastes.
- arjie
A few years ago there was a headline about how the monks who make chartreuse are going to spend more of their time on monastic pursuits and we're going to run out of chartreuse. Well, that's how many secondary articles described https://www.wsj.com/articles/chartreuse-craft-cocktails-liqu...
As a highly-intelligent anti-consumerist well aware of marketing materials and yellow journalism and also a very skilled reader of text who never makes decisions based on headlines, I scrambled to get a bottle of yellow chartreuse and one of green chartreuse. Never having had them as they are, I have to say they're quite enjoyable liqueurs on their own. Good fun.
After having bought the bottles and when the scramble was no longer necessary, I sat down to look at what the news actually said and found that all they said was that they aren't expanding production. Good show.
- tptacek
For a couple years the headline story about Chartreuse was that it was becoming impossible to get (which is annoying because it's an important ingredient in a bunch of super-popular cocktails, most notably the Last Word), owing to the monastery allocation scheme. But last I heard, you can pick up both the Yellow and Green at Binnys, which is the neighborhood liquor store chain in Chicagoland.
The Carthusians make an interesting story, but what I think is the bigger story is the collapse of the liquor market broadly. I think but can't cite sources that what's happened is post-pandemic shifts pushing bars out of business, and bars in turn significantly cutting back orders. Whatever it is, Eagle Rare was supermarket whiskey in 2010, was an back room allocation whiskey in 2021, and is back on the shelves again. Pretty much every whiskey is now gettable in a way it wasn't just a couple years ago.
- bestouff
Hey !
I'm precisely living in the Chartreuse Massif (in the French Alps), and regularly fly over the monks' monastery. Reading about our beloved drink here is fun !
I must say we also were worried when we learnt that they would reduce production (which had not been done in the monastery for a long time now, but in an adjacent city) but we're still able to buy it in our regular stores, so yes if feels like it was a marketing stunt.
- ericmay
It's not just the French! I'm obsessed with it too. It's fantastic.