Gîte, B&B, seminar reception area, rental in Isère, in the vicinity of the Côte Saint-André and Voiron

The Chartreuse cellars

Visit the world's largest Liqueur Cellar and the Distillery of the Chartreux monks.
During a one hour guided tour, you will visit the cellars in which the 19 tanks and 170 vats are stored and catch a glimpse of the mysteries of alchemy. Who invented the Chartreuse liqueur? No one knows. Probably a sixteenth century alchemist, looking for a life-giving elixir and well-versed in the properties of plants, who managed to combine some 130 among them. What we do know, is that in 1605, the Maréchal d'Estrées, a companion of Henri IV gave to the Chartreux monks of Vauvert, in the vicinity of Paris, an original manuscript in which the names of plants are listed. This document was completely forgotten until 1787, when Brother Jérôme Maubec succeeded in producing what is still referred to as the Plant Elixir of the Grande Chartreuse (71°). Shortly afterwards, he produced the green Chartreuse liqueur and the yellow one was produced in 1838. Entirely natural liqueurs, even color wise...