What is vieux used for?

Vieux is a Dutch spirit that has no category of its own in Regulation (EU) 2019/787 and therefore carries the legal designation spirit drink on the label.

Article 10 of that regulation provides that if a drink meets a category in Annex I, it uses that name; if it meets no category at all, its legal name is spirit drink. The word vieux sits alongside as a brand or type name.

Article 2 further states that every spirit drink contains at least 15 percent alcohol by volume. Only egg liqueur and advocaat may fall below that, at 14 percent by volume.

Vieux in coffee is the best-known use in the Netherlands: a splash into a cup of black coffee, after pouring and without boiling the coffee any further.

The reason not to boil it along is simple: alcohol evaporates when heated, and part of the aroma disappears with the alcohol. So add the vieux last.

Schenkt u koffie met vieux op een verjaardag of een condoleance, houd dan de NIX18-regel aan en zet er ook koffie zonder drank naast.

In Regulation (EU) 2019/787, brandy is a separate category with its own requirements, and a drink that does not meet them may not bear that name.

For brandy the following applies: made from wine eau-de-vie, at least 36 percent alcohol by volume, and matured for at least six months in oak casks under 1,000 litres or at least one year in larger oak vessels. The wine eau-de-vie itself must be distilled exclusively from wine and contain at least 37.5 percent by volume.

Vieux does not have to meet any of those requirements. That is why the label says spirit drink and not brandy.

In the kitchen you use vieux for desserts, sauces and soaking dried fruit.

Alcohol carries aroma and flavour compounds that do not dissolve in water, and that is why a splash of spirits in a sauce or a dough does something. If you then heat the dish further, part of the alcohol evaporates again.

A dish that you no longer heat retains its alcohol. Do not put such a dish on the table without a warning if children are eating too.

According to the Voedingscentrum, an opened bottle of vieux keeps indefinitely, provided you store it tightly closed, cool, dry and dark, outside the fridge.

The Voedingscentrum describes a closed bottle as keeping almost indefinitely in its full packaging. The freezer is less suitable for spirits.

You usually do not need to look for a best-before date: annex X of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 exempts drinks with 10 or more percent alcohol by volume from the date of minimum durability.

Jenever must be flavoured with juniper berries and contain at least 30 percent alcohol by volume; those requirements do not apply to vieux.

Jenever is also a protected geographical indication with a defined area and a product file that, among other things, requires at least 1.5 percent malt wine in the alcohol volume. Vieux has no protected name and no prescribed area.

In practice that comes down to two different kinds of drink: one leans on the juniper berry and on grain distillate, the other does not.