Editing Chartreuse (liqueur) (section)

==History==
[[File:La Grande Chartreuse, view from northwest 02 09a.jpg|thumb|The [[Grande Chartreuse]] monastery]]
[[File:Chartreuse-fake.jpg|thumb|Chartreuse counterfeits]]
[[File:Chartreuse caves img 5733.jpg|thumb|Chartreuse cellars]]
[[File:Chartreuse alambics img 5743.jpg|thumb|Old style [[pot still]]s no longer in regular use, having been replaced by [[stainless steel]] stills]]
According to tradition, a marshal of artillery to French king [[Henry IV of France|Henry IV]], [[François Annibal d'Estrées|François Hannibal d'Estrées]], presented the Carthusian [[monk]]s at [[Vauvert]], near [[Paris]], with an [[alchemy|alchemical]] manuscript that contained a recipe for an "elixir of long life" in 1605.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cartusian.tripod.com/id152.html|title=Chartreuse Liqueurs|work=Immaculate Heart of Mary's Hermitage |access-date=31 October 2013 |quote=The monks got hold of the recipe, originally a health potion, in 1605 but it was so complex they didn't master it for another century.}}</ref><ref name="Renault">{{cite news |last1=Renault |first1=Marion |title=An Elixir From the French Alps, Frozen in Time |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/17/business/chartreuse-monks-coronavirus.html |access-date=28 December 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=17 December 2020}}</ref> The recipe eventually reached the religious order's headquarters at the [[Grande Chartreuse]] monastery, north of Grenoble. The formula is said to include 130 herbs, plants and flowers and secret ingredients combined in a wine alcohol base.<ref name="History">[https://www.chartreuse.fr/en/histoire/history-of-the-chartreuse-liqueurs/ Chartreuse.fr History of the Chartreuse Liqueurs]</ref> The recipe was further enhanced in 1737 by Brother Gérome Maubec.

The beverage soon became popular, and in 1764 the monks adapted the elixir recipe to make what is now called the "Elixir Végétal de la Grande Chartreuse".<ref name="History"/>

In 1793, the monks were expelled from France along with all other religious orders and manufacture of the liqueur ceased. A copy of the manuscript was made and kept at the monastery. The original left with the monks. On the way there, the monk was arrested and sent to prison in [[Bordeaux]]. He was not searched and was able to secretly pass the manuscript to one of his friends: Dom Basile Nantas. This friend was convinced that the order would remain in Spain and never come back and that the manufacturing of the liqueur would cease. He sold the manuscript to a pharmacist in Grenoble, Monsieur Liotard. In 1810, [[Napoleon]] ordered that all "secret" recipes of medicine be sent to the [[Ministry of Interior (France)|Ministry of Interior]] for review. The manuscript was sent and returned as "Refused" as it was not a secret but well known. After the death of the pharmacist, his heirs returned the manuscript to the monks who had been back at the monastery since 1816.<ref name="History"/>{{Failed verification|date=April 2022}}

In 1840, they developed a milder version called Green Chartreuse and a sweeter version called Yellow Chartreuse.<ref name="History"/>

The monks were again expelled from the monastery following [[Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau#Associations Bill of 1901|a French law in 1903]], and their real property, including the distillery, was confiscated by the government. The monks took their secret recipe to their refuge in [[Tarragona]], Catalonia, and began producing their liqueurs with the same label, but with an additional label which said ''Liqueur fabriquée à Tarragone par les Pères Chartreux'' ("liqueur manufactured in Tarragona by the Carthusian Fathers"). At the same time, the "Compagnie Fermière de la Grande Chartreuse", a corporation in [[Voiron]] that obtained the Chartreuse assets, produced a liqueur without benefit of the monks' recipe which they sold as Chartreuse. While the French corporation was acting legally in France, the monks successfully prevented the export of the liqueur to many other countries, since the order retained ownership of its foreign trademark registrations, largely because the recipe had been kept secret.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19061007.2.77.6|title=Monks Sue to Prevent Use of Chartreuse Trademark|date=7 October 1906|work=San Francisco Call|page=34|access-date=1 December 2016}}</ref><ref name="Ladas1975">{{cite book |last1=Ladas |first1=Stephen Pericles |title=Patents, Trademarks, and Related Rights: National and International Protection |date=1975 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-65775-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kPIz4TNTpYEC&pg=PA1183 |page=1183 }}</ref> One dispute was litigated in the United States, in which the monks won a lawsuit defending their trademark in ''[[Baglin v. Cusenier]]''.<ref>[https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=11361850163736660859&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr Baglin v. Cusenier Co., 221 U.S. 580 (1911)].</ref>

Sales at the French company were very poor, and by 1929, it faced [[bankruptcy]]. A group of local businessmen in Voiron bought all the shares at a low price and sent them as a gift to the monks in Tarragona.<ref name="History"/>
After regaining possession of the distillery, the Carthusian brothers returned to the monastery with the tacit approval of the French government and began to produce Chartreuse once again. Despite the eviction law, when a mudslide destroyed the distillery in 1935, the French government assigned army engineers to relocate and rebuild it at a location near Voiron where the monks had previously set up a distribution point. After [[World War II]], the government lifted the expulsion order, making the Carthusian brothers legal French residents once again.<ref name="History"/>

Until the 1980s, there was another distillery at [[Tarragona]] in Spain.<ref>{{cite web |title=Green Chartreuse, Tarragona Bot. 1980s|url=https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-26011.aspx |website=The Whisky Exchange}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Chartreuse Distilleries |url=http://www.chartreuse.fr/the-chartreuse-distilleries;article;45;uk.html |website=Chartreuse |access-date=12 February 2015 |archive-date=13 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150213021716/http://www.chartreuse.fr/the-chartreuse-distilleries;article;45;uk.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2017 the distillery moved from Voiron to nearby Aiguenoire due to safety concerns.<ref name="Renault"/>

Today, the liqueurs are produced using the herbal mixture prepared by two monks at Grande Chartreuse. They are the only ones to know the secret recipe. The marketing, bottling, packaging, management of the distillery and tours are done by ''Chartreuse Diffusion'', a company created in 1970.<ref name="History"/> Other related alcoholic beverages are manufactured in the same distillery (e.g. [[Génépi]]).

===21st century: popularity and scarcity===
[[File:Chartreuse bottles.jpg|thumb|A Chartreuse tasting in the U.S., left to right: Green, Yellow, Liqueur du 9° Centenaire, and MOF Chartreuse products]]
Chartreuse increased in popularity during the [[craft cocktail movement]] of the early 2000s, due to its bittersweet profile and effective marketing of its romantic history.<ref name="NYT20230414" /> Cocktails such as [[Last word (cocktail)|the Last Word]] were popularized by mixologists. In 2020, the trend toward at-home cocktail making during the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] doubled worldwide demand for the liqueur.<ref name="NYT20230414" /> Global sales of Chartreuse sales reached over US$30 million in 2022.<ref name="NYT20230414" />

Meanwhile, in a separate decision, the Carthusian monks decided in 2019 to limit Chartreuse production to 1.6 million bottles per year, citing the environmental impacts of production, and the monks' desire to focus on solitude and prayer.<ref name="NYT20230414" /> The combination of fixed production and increased demand has resulted in shortages of Chartreuse across the world.<ref name="NYT20230414">{{cite news |last1=Cooper |first1=Becky |title=Why Is Chartreuse Hard to Find Right Now? Ask the Monks Who Make It. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/14/dining/drinks/chartreuse-shortage.html |access-date=28 April 2023 |work=The New York Times|date=14 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424055950/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/14/dining/drinks/chartreuse-shortage.html?searchResultPosition=1 |archive-date=24 April 2023 |location=New York, NY}}</ref>