Dutch Courage, by Geraldine Coates
Dutch Jenever is the first cousin of English gin. Both are juniper flavoured distillates of alcohol and they share a common ancestry and a common birthplace - the Low Countries - Holland and Belgium on today's maps but one country until the 1880s.
Whenever you read anything about the early history of jenever and gin, you will be told that Sylvius, Professor of Medicine at the University of Leyden was the first to perfect a juniper flavoured spirit in around 1568, used to treat kidney disorders. This is complete nonsense, a marketing wheeze dreamed up in the 1960s by an over imaginative copywriter. The problem is that the good Dr. Sylvius may well have been the first to record a formulation for distilling with juniper but he certainly wasn't the first to distil with juniper. It's time to put the record straight.
Distilling with juniper in Europe almost certainly goes back to the 11th century when the learned monks of Salerno in Italy were making medicinal potions by distilling a wine spirit together with various roots, berries and herbs. Because juniper grows so freely in Italy and was known to be of therapeutic value, we can safely assume that at least one of the monks' medicines was based on juniper. Juniper flavoured distillates made appearances at various times from then onwards, still as medicinal cordials. In monasteries and noble houses throughout Europe spirits flavoured with herbs, flowers and berries were made and used to treat ailments. Juniper cordials were particularly popular during the years of the Black Death, the epidemics of plague, which stalked Europe in the mid 14th century because juniper was believed to protect against the deadly disease. In the 15th century a son of French king Louis 1V came up with a wine flavoured with juniper called "the wine of the poor".
In the late 15th century, in the Low Countries, juniper flavoured spirit seems to have made the leap from the apothecary's counter to the tavern table fairly effortlessly. This transformation represented a marriage of two quite distinct strands of distilling in mediaeval Europe: one, the monastic tradition of distilling to produce spirits for medicinal use; the other, the age-old practice in the Celtic badlands of converting surplus grain crops into spirits to drink for pleasure. Excise records of 1492 confirm that the Dutch were making significant quantities of spirit from cereals, mainly rye. This spirit was known as brandewijn (Dutch for burnt or heated wine), a catch all term for all forms of spirit. Although it was much cheaper to distil from grain rather than wine the resulting spirit was not a sophisticated drink and constant experimentation was carried out to find a way of making it more palatable. Juniper combined well with brandewijn, grew everywhere in the Low Countries and was considered to be restorative, particularly good for kidney problems. In the Low Countries from this time on, jenever also called genever, geneva, Hollands and Schiedam became the people's drink.
The Dutch were probably the first European nation to develop a large-scale commercial distilling industry. Between 1500 and 1700 every sizeable town had several distilleries making jenever, spirit or liqueurs. Foreigners claimed that it was the foul climate of the Low Countries that made drinking so much a part of life but there were other reasons. The innate Dutch inventiveness and love of experimentation meant that there was virtually nothing that they would not make into strong drink. Crucially all the necessary ingredients were to hand. The Dutch ruled the seas and, every hour of every day, the ships of the East and West Indies Companies unloaded cargoes of exotic foodstuffs and spices from all over the world at the ports of the Low Countries. Amsterdam was the pre-eminent port for sugar and spices and soon became a centre for liqueur making. Rotterdam was the grain port and nearby Schiedam became the hub of jenever production.
Not only was there soon a big domestic market for jenever but there was also a huge export trade. Dutch ships had always carried wine for their own use on board and to trade. The Dutch invented cognac because it was easier to transport spirits than wine. By the beginning of the 17th century hardly a Dutch ship left port without its jenever cargo and so, wherever the Dutch went, they took jenever with them. Indeed there are still remote shores of West Africa where 17th century jenever stone jars are regularly unearthed.
England became a market for Dutch jenever from the 1570s onwards. Sailors travelling between English ports and the ports of the Low Countries brought genever back with them much as modern day travellers acquire luxury drinks in Duty Free. Demand increased supply and ports like London, Liverpool, Bristol and Plymouth all imported Dutch jenever particularly when the trade in spirits from France and Germany was interrupted during the war years in the 1630s. At that time too hundred of English soldiers and sailors were fighting in the Low Countries. They had been introduced to jenever via the encouraging tots given to steady their nerves before battle. They christened it Dutch courage, shortened jenever to gin, and brought home a taste for this new spirit and drinking spirits in general.
The arrival of Dutch William lll on the British throne was the catalyst for the development of a home-grown English distilling industry. English distillers began to make gin, a product for which there was already a substantial consumer demand and political support. Interestingly enough large amounts of Dutch jenever continued to be imported into Britain throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with official figures for 1782 showing a figure of 2.5 million gallons. Unofficially the figure would have been much bigger as vast quantities were smuggled, often through the Isle of Man, the centre of the smuggling trade because goods could be imported legally into the island by paying a small tariff to the Lord of Man and then landed illegally in the North of England, Scotland and Ireland.
In the beginning English gin tasted very like Dutch jenever and was heavy, sweet and aromatic often flavoured with spices like cloves and myrrh still used in modern genever production. Jenever and gin long ago went their separate ways but, if you would like to get some idea of what England's national drink first tasted like, we've listed some excellent jenever brands below. And the next time anybody tries to tell you that gin was invented by Sylvius of Leyden, just smile because you know better.
Popular Jenever Brands
Boomsma Graanjenever
De Kuyper Oude
De Kuyper Jonge Graanjenever
Notaris
Bokma Jonge Graanjenever
Bokma Vijf Jaren
Floryn Jenever
Keitel 1
Bols Jonge
Bols Oude
Bols Corenwijn
Find out more about Jenever
The National Distillery Museum in Schiedam has an impressive archive
and working distillery where they make jenever in the traditional way
and sell their own brand sealed with the stamp of the Burgomeister of
Schiedam, a sign of quality. It's open to the public, easily reached by
train from Amsterdam and well worth a visit.
National Distillery Museum
Lange Haven 74 -76
Schiedam
Tel: 0031 10 426 93 40 for opening hours
For further information on jenever brands and other Dutch spirits contact:
Productschap voor Gedistilleerde Dranken
Lange Haven 127
3111 Schiedam
0031 10 426 9340
Fax: 0031 10 473 9858
Email: info@pgd.nl
URL: http://www.pgd.nl
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