How long has jenever existed?

The product file of the protected designation Jenever goes back to 1266, when Jacob van Maerlant wrote about the juniper berry in his encyclopedia.

That same file mentions a Middle Dutch text about alcohol that was copied in 1351 by Joannes van Aalter, and the book Dit is die rechte conste om allerhande wateren te distilleren from 1520.

The first edition of a second distilling book appeared in 1552 with Jan Roelands in Antwerpen. In 1601 the archdukes Albrecht and Isabella issued a ban on distilling, and in 1718 Robert Hennebo wrote his Lof van de jenever.

Jenever is a protected geographical indication, with a product specification that lays down the area, the lower limit of 30 percent alcohol by volume and the requirement of 1.5 percent malt wine.

RVO keeps the Dutch files. There are five protected Dutch jenever names: Jenever, Graanjenever, Jonge jenever, Oude jenever and Vruchtenjenever. For vruchtenjenever the lower limit is 18 percent by volume.

The protection applies to the name. Outside the defined area a drink may be made, but it may not be called jenever.

Malt wine is the grain distillate that gives jenever its character; the product file prescribes that it is distilled between 80 and 40 percent by volume.

The grains are coarsely ground, brewed with water into wort, fermented and then distilled. Permitted are wheat, rye, barley, maize, oats, buckwheat and triticale.

The share of malt wine is precisely what separates young from old jenever. Every jenever contains at least 1.5 percent malt wine in the alcohol volume; old jenever at least 15 percent.

An age statement is not mandatory for jenever: the protected designations set requirements for malt wine, sugar and alcohol, not for a maturation period.

Only those who have let their old jenever rest in wooden casks for at least a year may put that on the label. Distilleries that mature for longer state that themselves.

Korenwijn is a traditional style that is not among the five protected Dutch jenever names that RVO lists. What exactly it contains, you can read on the label of the bottle.

The Nationaal Jenevermuseum in Schiedam, at Lange Haven 74, keeps a working distillery going and shows how malt wine genever was made.

The museum distils its own jenever there to a recipe from 1700 and lets it mature in cask for at least a year; some casks stay there for several years. In the distillery there are mash tuns, cooling vessels and copper stills.

In its heyday there were hundreds of such distilleries in Schiedam. The museum also tells about the role of advertising in the image people have of genever.