What is the difference between gin and jenever?

Jenever has moutwijn at its base, gin does not. Gin is neutral alcohol of agricultural origin flavoured with juniper berries.

Moutwijn is a distillate of whole grains. That distillate brings grain character, and that is exactly what makes jenever a grain drink with juniper in it. Gin starts from as neutral an alcohol as possible, after which the botanicals do the work.

Both drinks need juniper, but in different ways. In gin, juniper must be the dominant flavour. In the category jenever falls under, juniper must be recognisable, even if that flavour is more subtle.

Regulation (EU) 2019/787 places gin in category 20: ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin, flavoured with juniper berries, with at least 37.5 per cent alcohol.

The regulation states that gin is made by flavouring ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin with juniper berries (Juniperus communis L.), and that only flavourings or flavouring preparations may be used, so that the taste is predominantly that of juniper.

The word dry has its own requirement: it may only be used if no more than 0.1 gram of sweetener per litre has been added. Besides gin, the regulation also has separate categories for distilled gin and London gin.

Jenever falls under category 19 and must contain at least 30 per cent alcohol, plus at least 1.5 per cent grain distillate in the alcohol volume.

The full name of category 19 is: juniper-flavoured spirit drinks. The base may be ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin, grain spirit, grain distillate or a combination of these. The jenever product specification adds the requirement of moutwijn on top of that.

Sweetening is allowed up to at most 20 grams per litre. Stricter requirements apply to oude jenever: at least 15 per cent grain distillate in the alcohol volume and at least 35 per cent alcohol.

Jenever is a protected geographical indication for the Netherlands, Belgium, two French departments and two German states.

The product specification names the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the French departments of Nord (59) and Pas-de-Calais (62), and the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony. Outside that area a drink may not bear the name jenever.

Gin has no such area. Gin is a category, not a name of origin, and may therefore be made anywhere in the world as long as the bottle meets the requirements of category 20.

Oude and jonge jenever are separate protected names with their own requirements, not two ages of the same drink.

The words refer to the style. Oude jenever stands for the older way of working, rich in moutwijn, and must contain at least 15 per cent grain distillate in the alcohol volume. Jonge jenever stands for the lighter style that emerged later.

So a bottle can be called oude jenever without having spent years in a cask. If you want to know whether it has been aged in wood, check whether the bottle says anything separate about that.