Courtesy of the illustrious David T. Smith, author of The Gin Dictionary, Disco Cocktails, and other fine bibulous publications, I and a group of friends were treated to a rare Chartreuse tasting after we had wrapped up all of our work at the American Distilling Institute’s annual conference and trade show this past August in Baltimore, MD.

Our casual panel of tasters included:

• Eric Zandona, author of The Tequila Dictionary and The Bourbon Bible

• Sara Sergent, botanical savant and owner of Alpine Distilling in Park City, Utah

• Joe Barber of Stargazey Spirits and The Wrecking Coast Distillery in the UK

• And Reece Sims, creator of Flavour Camp

Here’s a (hopefully) somewhat complete list of the stuff we tasted, which may explain our silliness toward the end:

• The standard Green Chartreuse and Yellow Chartreuse - but these were both taken from the soleras or “infinity bottles” of David T. Smith, so they felt a bit more special

• Liqueur d’Elixir - A tribute to one of the early proto-variants of Green Chartreuse - this is essentially a half-step between the elixir vegetal and Green Chartreuse

• 9iere Centennaire - A tribute to the 900th anniversary of the founding of the Order of St. Bruno (also known as the Carthusians)

• Chartreuse Verte VEP (that’s the fancy green Chartreuse)

• A bottling by the French Order of master Sommeliers from 2018 - which is a small batch, custom variant of Yellow Chartreuse

• Tarragona, which is another Chartreuse recipe, celebrating either Tarragon (the herb) or the formulation that the monks made when they were in exile in Spain for a couple decades in the early 20th century

• Three variants of Chartreuse Genepy (the traditional, intense, and abrupt)

• And finally, a lovely Florio Amaro bottled in the 1970s, provided by yours truly.

Other topics we discuss include:

• The Carthusian monk documentary entitled Into Great Silence

• The mythical “beast of Gevaudan” that ravaged the French countryside once upon a time

• The taxonomy of the Artemisia botanical family

• A whole bunch of strong cocktail-related opinions about Chartreuse and genepy,

• And much, much more