Herb Liqueurs from Frigolet

An Illustrious Past

The history of Frigolet is forever linked with Reverend Father Gaucher. The account of his invention of his legendary "elixir" entertained many a reader of Alphone Daudet's "Letters from my Mill". Alas, the true story of the liqueur has precious little to do with Daudet's charming imagination. There was indeed a liqueur-making friar in the first group of brothers that founded the community, friair Callixte Gastinel, but his official function was that of "Portier", in charge of the gatehouse. As for the liqueur, it was only made for several months in 1858.

What follows is an extract from the abbey newsletter published in 1869 (page 878) in reaction to the Daudet story:

«  ...When we made the liqueur eleven years ago it was only for three months, and even though it did nothing but good, and its sale helped raise the earthly resources we needed, and even though, thank God, none of the friars involved ended up drinking too much of the stuff, we ended up having to give it up for the simple reason that there were not enough us to keep making it without endangering the spiritural rhythm of our community - which we prefer by far to any and all earthly resources which its continued manufacture might have procured... »

In 1922, following the disastrous twenty-year exile in Belgium, the community needed a source of revenue. As a result, Father Adrien Borelly used his many talents as an herbalist to come up with an elixir. By 1933 he brought to life a completely new liqueur, but whose promotion had been started many years before.

Today:  The Herb Liqueurs of Frigolet Abbey

Frigolet Abbey continues this tradition today with three different herb liqueurs distilled at Eyguebelle.

Each offers all the qualities of a traditional "elixir" liqueur mande entirely from natural ingredients. As was said of theirs ancestors from 1858, each of these liqueurs "does nothing but good"!

*Warning! The abuse of alcohol is dangerous to your health.