Love Chartreuse? You Should Try Génépy

It was a memo that shook the spirits world: In January 2023, the Carthusian monks who produce Chartreuse at their monastery high in the French Alps announced they’d leveled off production of the iconic herbal liqueur—which comes in green and yellow varieties—in favor of prayer, contemplation and sustainability. Calling it a “strategic decision,” the monks said they’d double down on their core European market, with allocations for everyone else.

For a drinking public that had fallen hard for green Chartreuse during the pandemic—sales doubled during that period, to $30 million in 2022—the announcement stirred passions across Twitter. “The chartreuse monks sent this out and I’m losing my mind,” wrote one user. Some bartenders have already noticed the Chartreuse squeeze.

“Chartreuse has been very, very hard to get,” says Michell Boyd, bar manager for the Atlanta gastropub Hampton + Hudson. “I haven’t been able to find any in six to eight months.”

Fortunately for Boyd, another botanical spirit has been patiently waiting in the wings for its moment: génépy, an Alpine liqueur with a similar but beguilingly unique flavor profile. “I just fell in love with it,” says Boyd, who first began using génépy to make daiquiris. “It has a similar flavor profile but is a lot more approachable.”

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What Is Génépy?

Génépy is a pale, slightly sweet spirit made from rare Alpine varieties of artemisia, a species of petite flowering plants and shrubs. These include wormwood, mugwort and chamomile, which grow between 5,000 and 10,000 feet above sea level, mostly in the Alps and the Pennines. With aromatic, honeyed yellow flowers, the artemisia used for génépy—among them, artemisia genipi and artemisia umbelliformis—have long been used in medicinal teas and syrups, but also to infuse spirits and wines for hyperlocal aperitifs.

Is Génépy the Same as Chartreuse?

While both share Alpine DNA, Chartreuse and génépy have distinct personalities. The complex formula for Chartreuse, famously deciphered by the Carthusian monks from a 1600s formula, is known only to a few. By contrast, génépy is a group of iconic liqueurs with myriad blends, depending on locality.

“The flowers are so expressive, so delicate and so unique, and they have this history as herbal medicine,” says Daniel de la Nuez, co-founder of Brooklyn’s Forthave Spirits. He and partner Aaron Sing Fox began researching génépy almost a decade ago before creating their own version. “Their history also includes ski lodges, where génépy warms people up.”

Génépy usually falls below the powerful 110 proof of green Chartreuse, with a gentler visage. “Chartreuse is bold and super-bright. It is high octane, strong in flavor and not exactly every person’s cup of tea,” admits Jonathan Gonzalez, owner of Hunter & Thief, a cocktail bar in Lindenhurst, New York. “Génépy is more subtle, and you have to have a more delicate touch [as a bartender] because the flavors are more controlled and contained.”

How Génépy Is Made

Many traditional génépy formulas stretch back to the 1800s and begin with collecting artemisia flowers and macerating those in either a neutral spirit or wine, although some add the botanicals during distillation. Chez Dolin, the French house that produces the pale-yellow Dolin Génépy le Chamois Liqueur, steeps up to 30 botanicals in neutral liquor produced on alembic stills since 1821.

As the partners of Forthave Spirits researched génépy, they came across a style more akin to vermouth. “We read about this old-fashioned style, more of a wine aperitif style. We thought that would be a lovely thing and would work better for the delicate flowers,” says Fox. “But we also found it challenging to get génépy flowers.”

During the pandemic, he recalls, their small allocation of the botanical was tied up with the U.S. Postal Service for nearly a year. Once in hand, they macerated those in Seyval Blanc wine from the Finger Lakes, then fortified and sweetened the spirit before bottling.

What Does Génépy Taste Like?

When talking botanical infusions, gin might naturally spring to mind, but génépy is its own animal. “Génépy tends to be a little more intensely herbaceous than gin,” notes Nick Walsh, general manager of Eastern Kille Distillery in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which produced its first iteration of génépy this summer.

Many words that bartenders use to describe génépy conjure images of spring. “Every time I taste génépy, it has these mint flavors, with cocoa flavors,” says Gonzalez.

“Génépy is evocative, bright and fresh, salubrious,” adds Mark Hull, head bartender of the Mr. B. Bar inside the Burgess Hotel in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood. “I describe it as tasting of chamomile.”

How to Drink Génépy

At Mr. B. Bar, Hull splashes Dolin’s génépy in the house gin and tonic, pairing it with lime peel-infused Fords Gin and Fever Tree tonic. “It adds a bright dimension,” notes Hull, who also sometimes just pours it straight, or on the rocks. “[Customers] might be fearful, then curious, then fascinated. Then I have them drinking it out of pony snifters.”

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Gonzalez has used génépy for what he calls an Alpine martini, which he likes to deeply chill until it has a viscous texture. “Génépy gives me the flexibility to not pivot to the old guard of how cocktails should be made,” he says. At Hunter & Thief, he’s using coconut-oil-washed génépy and white chocolate-washed gin for a liquid homage to Peppermint Patties, called Banner in the Sky.

Walsh has used génépy in The Last Word, a Detroit-born cocktail from the 1920s traditionally mixed with gin, maraschino and green Chartreuse. “[Génépy] works amazingly as a substitute [for Chartreuse],” he says. “We did a couple of pop-ups in Detroit, and the industry loved it.”

Which Génépy Should I Buy?

While much European génépy doesn’t make it across the Atlantic, a few do—such as Dolin and Alpe Genepy—and they join a growing number of domestic versions.

Last Updated: September 28, 2023