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It was in 1859 that an inspired herbalist, Joseph
Rumillet Charretier, apothecary by profession, discovered the formula
for Verveine du Velay; he did so by combining the juices of over
thirty-two plants in his dispensary, with the help of a small copper
still. In 1886, 27 years after the creation of this Verveine du Velay, J.
Rumillet Charretier, who had become both an industrialist in the region
and a deputy, hired Victor Pagès (a distant relative) to be director
and continued working in the company until 1891.
Victor was therefore the first in the Pagès dynasty to invest himself in
Verveine du Velay and to contribute to its expansion. Naturally he gave
his family’s name to the liqueur that became "Pagès Verveine du Velay”
and a mandarin orange liqueur that we still make today, called
“Mandarine Baron Victor". Victor in his turn passed the flame of Verveine
du Velay to his son-in-law, Alphonse Julien-Pagès, who headed the
company from 1921 to 1949, while being seconded from 1929 by his own
son: Raymond Julien-Pagès, who became Chairman of Pagès in 1953.
It was Raymond who created the Velay laboratory and
the Pagès Teas and Infusions branch, direct outgrowths of the
experience and know-how of a company become specialized in plants -
since they are the raw material used in making Verveine du Velay, as well as all his other wonderful liqueurs.
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In 1984,
Raymond Julien-Pagès – who wished to prepare for his departure from the
company and to hand the reins over to another independent and 100%
French family concern – chose for his successor the Renaud Cointreau
family, which has managed the Pagès company since in the person of our
President and Managing Director, Mr. Jean-Pierre Cointreau.
As the heads of the Verveine du Velay company have
succeeded each other for now close to 150 years, its spirit has remained
the same; we are still a small family concern on a human scale, and we
are attached to tradition.
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