Chambord

When King Louis XIV and his wife Marie Antoinette singlehandedly brought 17th century France to the brink of bankruptcy, the starving masses staged a number of violent demonstrations culminating in various attacks on the palace at Versailles. As a result, Louis and his wife were forced to leave their lavish palace in Versailles and flee to French countryside. Located in the Loire Valley, Chateau de Chambord was used by King Louis as a luxury retreat to entertain luminaries. It was on one of these potentially quite literal escapes that King Louis was presented with a new invention – a black raspberry liqueur that his subjects had spent years perfecting. Made by infusing blackberries and raspberries with Madagascan vanilla and cognac, this black raspberry liqueur offers a rich, sweet and uniquely natural berry flavor. Today, this extraordinary liqueur is still produced in the Loire valley and derives its name from the chateau where it was first conceived.