An ancient manuscript inscribed with a recipe for an elixir of long life is delivered to the gates of a monastery in the French Alps. One hundred years later the Carthusian monks capture the world market with the release of Chartreuse liquers.

Behind the forbidding walls of the ancient La Grande Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps, the Carthusian Monks remain entirely isolated from the outside world, veiled by the silence of their vows. Every three days, while their brothers continue their contemplative lives, three monks leave their prayer cells dressed in white shepherds' robes and file along the polished corridors to the herb room. These three are the sole guardians of a centuries-old secret, an alchemist's recipe for a mediaeval elixir which the Carthusians have transformed into their famous liqueurs, the yellow and green Chartreuse, the oldest of the world's liqueurs.

Only the distillers have ever been allowed to enter the herb room where they blend the 130 herbs essential to the base formula. When they order the various plants and flowers from local suppliers, the invoices are sent directly to the monastery. Not even Jean-Marc Roget, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chartreuse Diffusion, the company which handles the finances and distribution of the products, knows the ingredients which he pays for at the end of each month.

"I haven't the slightest idea what we are buying", says Roget. "In six years I haven't seen the name of a single plant. I receive a note from the monastery saying 'Please supply this amount of money to these suppliers for plant numbers one, two and three'. I no-longer wonder what goes into the liqueurs or how to find out - you just accept that you never will".

The Chartreuse products have remained virtually unchanged for over two hundred years. The distilling is an integral part of the life of the monastery, which in itself has followed the same quest for 'an Ideal of Truth and mystical fulfillment' for over nine hundred years.

The history of the Carthusian Order began in 1084 when Bruno, Maitre celebre de l'Universite de Reims and six other people decided to settle in the Chartreuse mountains at the foot of the Alps and dedicate their life to prayer. at first Bruno and his companions lived in self-sufficient seclusion, but as their numbers grew and they were forced to clear more land for grazing and growing crops, they began to make masts from the huge stands of pine trees and supplied them to the Fleet. Although no written laws had been defined for future members of the Order, they were not to beg or accept charity and so turned to the natural resources of their surroundings to support their community.

Between the 14th and 17th centuries, they processed the woods from the forests into charcoal, extracted iron ore from local mines and with power provided by the mountain streams, became metallurgists. In fact they are still recognised as having been the initiators of some of the modern methods of metallurgy. In 1605, when their activities as Iron Masters were at their peak - they had as many as 11 blast furnaces in operation - a French soldier passed on to them an alchemist's recipe for an 'Elixir of Long Life'. It wasn't until the monks' metallurgy trade encountered severe difficulties over a century later that their attention returned to the formula which they discovered was a concentrate of the medicinal herbs, plants and flowers used in the Middle Ages for curing all manner of illnesses. By 1737 they had developed it and placed it on the market.

"This product was nicknamed the 'Elixir of Long Life' and used to cure anything", explains Jean-Marc Roget. "If you had had a big meal, you would take it with sugar to promote better digestion; if you were bitten by an insect you rubbed it on the bite to stop the itching. It also stopped seasickness. In 1764 they further refined it into a 'health liqueur' and this is what we know today as 'Green Chartreuse'. Around 1840 the recipe was adapted to produce another liqueur with lower alcohol content - this was 'Yellow Chartreuse'. The recipes have not changed since and just to demonstrate this, if you bump your head, don't drink the liqueur, rub it on your head and you will not get a bruise. It really works!"

With the introduction of Yellow Chartreuse, the monks virtually introduced liqueurs to the world. In 1870 they were producing about 13,000 bottles. Fifteen years later they sold a total in excess of three million. "Yellow Chartreuse set the trend", says Roget. "This is exactly when we think the world of liqueur started. To tell you how big Chartreuse became, Queen Victoria asked the Pope, who was not really her best friend at the time, to be allowed into the monastery from which this unbelievable product came. Everyone in our industry tells of the long history of their product but at this time they were not being sold. In France, everyone would agree that Chatreuse was the one. Liqueurs became really big at the end of the 19th century, just as Chartreuse was about to disappear from the market".

Early this century the Government in France was very left wing and was attempting to restrict the Church's involvement in the political sphere to no avail. In 1903 the Carthusians and other Catholic Orders were expelled from France. The monks set up a distillery in Spain but war years were ahead and the Order was lucky to survive at all. They returned to France during the Great War but production of Chartreuse was limited until the 1950s.

"Really, this is the new life of Chartreuse", says Roget. "We are not on a two hundred year story. Chartreuse has been going strong since the Second World War but many other products took the stage while these liqueurs were out of the market. The Yellow Chartreuse is very much in line with Drambuie or Contreau which are easy to drink with a smooth honey base which cleanses the palate. The Yellow was the world fashion a century ago but today, for us, the situation has reversed - the Green is number one. It is a very specific spicy taste, in fact we had a tasting with Indians recently who liked it very much and said it reminded them of their spice markets. It is strong, very distinctive and you either love it or you don't. Chartreuse is the only liqueur that is aged before being put on the market. Both the Yellow and Green are aged for three years and there is also the 'V.E.P.' - Exceptionally Long Aging - which is aged between 12 and 15 years and in my opinion it is the best liqueur you can find".

La Grande Chartreuse, the monastery founded by (Saint) Bruno in 1084 is still the main monastery of the Carthusian Order. There are now 23 monasteries in all, and their inhabitants are the shareholders of Chartreuse. The Carthusians are the most silent Order of the Catholic Church, praising a solitary life of continual prayer and worship. As Chairman of Chartreuse Diffusion, Jean-Marc Roget deals directly with three monks: the Father Superior, the supreme authority of the Order who never leaves the monastery; the Procurator who is "in charge of the outside world and who acts as the go-between of the many monasteries"; and the Chief Distiller, a monk now in his late seventies.

"I have been with Chartreuse now for six years", says Roget, "and it's like being the chairman of any company, except perhaps that the people I deal with are more fascinating than just about anyone you are likely to meet in the world of business. My direct boss is the Procurator and when we meet, usually twice a month, we talk about profits, turnover, distribution, just like at any business meeting. This so-called boss of mine went to business school before entering the monastery and likes to discuss these things. It is his job. The Father Superior, on the other hand, couldn't care less.

"You must remember that they are different from other people in that they are not from our world. What I mean is that when you are dealing in the public arena you hear all the noises of the world and you have a hard time remembering what you did three days before. Anything you say is important to the monks: where you have been and who you have met and how the product sells. They are also careful not to ask too many questions because this interest can place at risk their choice in life. Sometimes I say to the distiller, 'do you really want me to answer that?' and he says, 'Maybe not'. The more they love the outside world, the more difficult it becomes for them. When we meet I usually have one question about philosophy which they will try to explain to me. They are always ready to skip from how many bottles we are selling in Yugoslavia to whether God is present in every person". The annual turnover of Chartreuse is approximately 31 million francs, which relative to other liquor manufacturers is very small indeed. 100% of the profit goes back into the business. Perhaps another distinction of doing business with the Carthusians is that shareholders are never likely to be vocal about dividends owed.

"Every time we sell one litre of liqueur they are entitled to X number of francs", explains Roget. "Two years ago we made a nice profit and the Procurator came to me and said, 'Are you mad! Why are we making a profit? What are we going to do with it?' I said that we needed it to grow, to invest and to provide a better cash flow. At no time did it enter his mind that he could ask for some of it".

In 1984 Roget asked the monks to produce a new liqueur to celebrate the 900th anniversary of the Order. He suggested that the market would respond well to a liqueur which had the specific taste of Green Chartreuse but which was much sweeter than the original. After a great deal of resistance, the Father Superior agreed and had a number of the Fathers develop a recipe for a new liqueur which was an adaptation of the original formula scrawled on the ancient manuscript of 1605. This was the first time that any change has been made to the Chartreuse liqueurs since the Yellow was released in 1840 ... except perhaps for one brief oversight made by a distiller which, according to the Father Superior, did not go unnoticed.

"The superior once said to me that a farmer had complained that Chartreuse was no longer helping his cattle; that the formula was no good", Roget recalls. "You see, in France the cattle are kept in barns in winter and when spring comes they get very excited and eat all the new grass and the air in their stomachs can kill them. To prevent this some farmers give their cattle half a bottle of the elixir in a bucket of water. The superior was very surprised to hear that the elixir was not helping the cattle and went to the distiller to remind him that they are not allowed to change the formula. The distiller said, 'Well, Father Superior, I have not changed anything, I have just run out of the viper snake venom'. The superior told him to acquire some immediately. Soon after the farmer reported that his cows were well again. I asked the superior, 'Do you really put viper snake into the elixir?' 'Well', he said, 'maybe that's just a little story for you to tell'".

Likewise, the bottle of Chartreuse has changed only slightly in a century and a half. A number of years ago a new Chairman decided it was time for a new design and commissioned an advertising agency to submit some labels for consideration. "It cost them a fortune", says Roget, "and it did not look like Chartreuse anymore. The Procurator at the time who was 77 years old said, 'I am fed up with you spending all this money' and he took a pair of scissors to the original label and after a few quick slices said 'This is the way it should be', and I think he was right because the result is fine.

"In France Chartreuse is promoted with tonic water on the rocks and today many youngsters enjoy Chartreuse because it was not their father's drink - it is a product which is so old it is new again. The last picture we used for advertising was youngsters drinking Chartreuse and tonic water on a surfboard. The problem was to find a bathing costume for a girl which would be acceptable to the monks. We showed the pictures to the Board of Directors and they thought it was great, including the Procurator. The next morning he phoned to ask me what we were going to do with this picture. I told him it was going to be placed in many hotels to show how enjoyable Chartreuse is. He said 'You are not going to represent Chartreuse with this girl in this bathing costume'.

"It took me three days to convince him. He said he would have to take the picture to the Father Superior for his opinion. After a few days I had not heard from him and so I contacted him. He did not even say yes, it was all right. All he said was, 'Don't ever do worse'. This is not an ignorant attitude by any means - they know that their image means a lot to many people and Chartreuse is a part of their life. Chartreuse allows them to devote themselves to their real work, which is spiritually bound"