How to Figure Out When Your Bottle of Chartreuse Was Produced

There’s no question that Chartreuse is a darling of the cocktail world, and for good reason. The botanical liqueur has been produced by the Carthusian monks for over 250 years, with both expressions offering complex flavor profiles that elevate cocktails and shine in classics like the Last Word. Chartreuse is also unique because of the way the liqueur behaves in the bottle.

Unlike most other distilled spirits, Chartreuse behaves more like a wine than it does a liqueur. That is to say that, when bottled, the spirit’s herbal and botanical notes continue evolving and mellowing, resulting in a drink that tastes very different than it did when it was first produced. Pretty cool, right? But for those seeking out a vintage Chartreuse, how are you supposed to know when it was actually bottled?

In 1991, Chartreuse introduced a six-digit code that pinpoints the exact day each bottle was sealed. This code can be found on the thin gold band at the top of the bottle just below the seal, with each code preceded by the letter “L,” which stands for lot number. From there, add the first three digits to 1084 — the year the Carthusian order was founded. Once added, the sum of these two numbers equates to the year the spirit was bottled.

Take the code L940004 as an example, which appears on a bottle of yellow Chartreuse here at VinePair HQ. When 940 is added to 1084, the total sum equals 2,024, which tells us the bottle was produced just last year.

To dig even further, take a look at the last three digits, which will range from 001 to 365. Each of these numbers corresponds to a day of the year, with 001 representing Jan. 1 and 365 equating to Dec. 31. So a bottle that ends in the digits “181” would have been bottled on the 181st day of the year, or June 30. The bottle here at VinePair HQ? That one was bottled on Jan. 4.

While extremely accurate, this code is only effective for identifying bottles produced after 1991. Luckily, there’s still a way to determine when your bottle was produced if there’s no numeral on the bottle; it’s just not as exact. Instead, simply check the back label to see who imported it. Over the decades, Chartreuse has been imported into the United States by several companies, and each bottle’s back label notes which company this was.

Since 1990, the spirit has been imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons, but from 1981 to 1990, 21 Brands brought the liqueur into this country. Any bottle with 21 Brands listed as the importer would have been produced at some point in that nine-year time frame. Before 21 Brands, Sussex imported Chartreuse from 1969 to 1981, and from the 1940s to 1969, it was Schieffelin & Sons. If you see Shently listed as the importer, your bottle was produced between 1933 and the 1940s.

Since 2021 (when the Carthusian monks capped Chartreuse production), stumbling upon any Chartreuse expression is a special moment, so be sure to check the code and the importer to determine if you have a bottle worth seriously celebrating.

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