I welcome you to join me in a discovery of the extraodinary history of Bénédictine liqueur. I will take you on a tour of the palace, distillery and a tasting of the liqueur.
The tour starts outside the Palace at the front entrance in the gated courtyard. The Palace itself is relatively small compared to many of the castles in France but what it lacks in size it certainly makes up for in detail.
The palace was built in the late 19th century in town of Fecamp, a coastal commune in province of Normandy France, just a short drive from Etretat and Dieppe. It's design is a mix of flamboyant Gothic architecture and classical neo-Renaissance. A unique combination.
The palace was built by this man, Alexander le Grand, and along with his famous alcohol was dedicated entirely to the glory of Benedictine monks.
The legend of the spirits begins hundreds of years ago in the town of Fecamp. The city was home to the monks of Saint Benedictine, a group who dedicated their lives to not only prayer, but also to philosophy and obtaining higher knowledges. Interesringly, some of monks were particularly interested in herbalism and the study of plants, as well as distillation processes and alchemy.
Inside the Palace
The tour inside the Palace begins at the top of a staircase where a large stained glass window tells the begining history of the Benedictine liqueur. In 1509 an alchemy specialist by the name of Dom Bernardo Vincelli was sent from Italy to the Fecamp Abbey. He carried with him a large array of unique herbs and spices. Upon his arrival at the Abbey Vencelli was tasked with discovering the "panacea," which was a universal remedy that is sometimes referred to as the elixir of life. The story goes that Dom Bernardo Vincelli did end up discovering several elixirs that were famous in the region for several hundreds of years. However, they were all destroyed and forgotten about during the French revolution.
The stained glass window in this location depicts Vencelli at work making his famous elixir.
The legend of Bénédictine liqueur continues on in the next room - called the Gothic Room.
The Gothic Room currently holds a large collection of scholarly works and Renaissance artifacts that were owned by Le Grand. It is said that in this room Le Grand stumbled upon a "grimoire" while sorting through a collection of parchments left to him by his grandfather. The grimoire, or book of magic spells, was written by Dom Bernardo Vincelli in 1510 and contained a mysterious recipe that was made up of 27 different herbs and spices. Le Grand used this recipe to make his famous liqueur which also contains 27 different ingredients.
What I personally liked most about this room was its ceiling. It was built out of dark wood and was made to look like an upturned hull of a boat.
Moving on into the next room we come to the Domed Hall. Its a colorful and ornately decorated room that ended up being my favorite in the palace.
Located in the center of the room is a large statue of Dom Bernardo Vincelli himself. Beside him to the left is a stained glass window depicting Alexander Le Grand.
The stained glass window was made in 1900 and depicts Le Grand giving a bottle of his famous liqueur to the angel Fame. His hand rests on a globe to symbolize his desire for Benedictine to be known throughout the world. I find this piece of art to be super tacky but in the most delightful sort of way. I really like it a lot.
On one of the walls of the room are four wood carvings depicting the story of Saint Margaret of Antioch. The woman refused to renounce her Christian faith and marry the prefect Olybrius and in a rage, the man imprisoned her. He then had her flogged, boiled alive and beheaded. The carving is interesting to me because the serene expression on the woman's face does not at all match the situation being depicted in the artwork.
The next room we move into is the Renaissance Hall. I really liked the ceiling in this room as well.
This room houses a large collection of really interesting artifacts that are made out of wrought iron.
Among the collection is an assortment of keys shown in the photo below. There was also a 16th century treasure chest from Nuremberg Germany, a Dutch astronomical clock, and a pair of iron boots that weighed 3 kilos each. They were used as armor while riding on horseback.
Next we come to the Oratory which was a place used for prayer and worship. Most of the rooms in the palace are connected by an open passageway. Looking to the left you can see Dom Vincelli back in the Domed Hall, his head is bowed in prayer.
The room contained a few pieces of interesting artwork but my favorite were these two Serpents. They are ancient wind instruments made out of wood and leather. They are said to produce a deep and powerful hoarse sound and were played as an accompaniment to the monks chanting.
The next room is called the Abbots Hall. It pays tribute to 16 historical Abbots of the town of Fecamp. Statues of the men line the room.
The nicely decorated room is currently being used as a dining hall for weddings and other important functions. I believe you can rent the room if you so desire.
The tour of the palace is quite short overall. There are only a few rooms to see and it takes only about 30 minutes to walk through. From there the tour continues though, in the distillery and tasting room.
Distillary and Tasting Tour
The small distillery is still used today to make Benedictine liqueur. As you can see the stills are made out of hammered copper. Some of them date back to Alexander Le Grand's time.
The stills produce four different spirits which are then aged for at least eight months. The length of time varies though depending on the final product being made.
After at least eight months of aging in the basement cellar, honey and saffron are added to the spirits to give the spirits flavor, aroma and color. The mixture is then aged for another four months.
Now it's time to taste it!
For the tasting we got to try three different products produced by the distillery. Our tour guide explained the process of each of their creation as well as instructed us on how to taste and smell them properly. The first drink was a very sweet liqueur with a lower alcohol percentage. The last had a higher alcohol lercentage and drank more like a good whiskey or cognac. The middle was as you would expect, somewhere between the middle of the two.
Benedictine is made up of 27 ingredients, some of which are listed during the tour. Lemon peel, saffron, honey, vanilla, angelica, hyssop, cinnamon and thyme are just a few of those ingredients.
I personally preferred the last drink that we tried. I found it less sweet and more, I don't know... whiskey like. My wife enjoyed the first drink, the one that was more sweet.
As you can see below Alexander Le Grand's wish did come true in the end. Benedictine distilleries can be found around the world and there are a wide range of different Benedictine alcohols.