What is gin?

According to Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2019/787, gin is a spirit drink with juniper, made by flavoring ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin with berries of Juniperus communis. The regulation permits only flavorings and flavoring preparations, and sets a hard requirement for the result: the flavor must be predominantly that of juniper. A spirit drink in which juniper does not take the lead may therefore not be called gin, however many other botanicals go into it.

That requirement makes juniper the only ingredient that the law prescribes. All other plant parts are free to choose and fall under the heading botanicals. The base is neutral alcohol from agricultural products, so gin gets its character not from the raw material and not from maturation in wood, but from the botanicals that go in during flavouring or distilling. The shop in Bathmen stocks 240 gins that meet the legal definition, spread over 96 brands.

De verordening kent drie gincategorieën: gin (categorie 20), gedistilleerde gin (categorie 21) en London gin (categorie 22), elk met een minimum van 37,5 procent alcohol. Het verschil zit in de manier waarop de smaak in de fles komt. Bij gewone gin mag die met aroma’s aan de alcohol worden toegevoegd. Gedistilleerde gin wordt gestookt met de jeneverbessen en andere natuurlijke botanicals in de ketel, uitgaande van alcohol van ten minste 96 procent; gin die alleen essences of aroma’s bijgemengd krijgt, is volgens de verordening geen gedistilleerde gin.

London gin is the strictest of the three and is always a distilled gin. The flavour must come entirely from that distillation, the distillate must contain at least 70 percent alcohol, the alcohol used may contain at most 5 grams of methanol per hectolitre of pure alcohol, no colouring is allowed, and nothing may be added apart from water. The name is therefore a production category and not an indication of origin; London gin may be distilled anywhere in the world.

Gin must contain at least 37.5 percent alcohol; below that percentage the legal name gin may not be on the label. That limit applies to all three categories, so also to distilled gin and to London gin. A juniper-flavoured spirit that comes out lower falls under the broader category of juniper-flavoured spirit drinks, and for that 30 percent is the minimum.

The store in Bathmen stocks 255 gin products. Of these, 240 bottles reach the legal 37.5 percent, with strengths going up to 57.5 percent. The origins are broad: England supplies 82 bottles, the Netherlands 55, Scotland 30, Italy 21, Spain 13, Belgium 12, France, Ireland and Japan 8 each, and Germany 7. In total the bottles come from 18 countries.

Jenever is a protected geographical indication: the name may only be used for drink from the Netherlands, Belgium and adjoining parts of France and Germany. The product specification names the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the French departments Nord (59) and Pas-de-Calais (62) and the German federal states Nordrhein-Westfalen and Niedersachsen. Gin has no such area and may be distilled anywhere.

Beyond that, there are two hard differences in composition. Jenever starts at 30 percent alcohol, gin at 37.5 percent. And jenever must contain malt wine, at least 1.5 percent of the pure alcohol volume of the end product, distilled from whole grains. Gin has no requirement on that point and starts from neutral alcohol. In Bathmen, 173 jenevers stand on the shelf alongside the 240 gins.

Vodka and gin have the same legal minimum of 37.5 percent alcohol, but for vodka the regulation prescribes no juniper berry and for gin it does. That is the whole distinction in law: both start from neutral alcohol of agricultural origin, and only with gin must the juniper berry determine the flavour.

For vodka the regulation goes the other way. The organoleptic characteristics of the raw material and of the by-products of fermentation must be selectively reduced, aromas are limited to natural flavouring substances that are already in the distillate of the fermented raw material, colouring is not allowed, and at most 8 grams of sweetener per litre may be added. Vodka does not have to come from potatoes or grains; if it does not, the raw material must be stated on the label. In the shop in Bathmen there are 247 vodkas next to the 255 gin products.