Last update - 00:00 11/10/2007
An exclusive - and elusive - drink
By Doram Gaunt
If jenever (or genever; in Flemish it is pronounced ye-nei-fer) were the national drink of some other country, presumably you would have heard of it. Perhaps you would even have a bottle of it in the cupboard, alongside the French Cognac, the Scotch whisky or the Russian vodka. Or at least, had you wanted some, you could have popped over to the supermarket and purchased a bottle. But the Belgians are not very good at international public relations and the marketing of their products. They tend to consume them themselves, quietly, generally out of the sight of the rest of the world. For that reason, very little of this fine alcoholic beverage, distilled from grains (mainly barley) and flavored with juniper berries, passes through customs and it is hard to find it outside Belgium. Dutch jenever, which is very similar, is easier to find.
In fact, the Belgian (and Dutch) passion for this spirit nearly brought about its extinction. Increased consumption led to drunkenness and a shortage of grains for the production of bread, and the authorities deliberated time after time over whether to prohibit production and to forgo the taxes. At the start of the 17th century, production was indeed prohibited in the Low Countries, and those who distilled jenever had to flee or go underground. Flemish alcohol producers moved to neighboring countries and began to distill schnapps in Germany, brandy (in Flemish, brandevin) in France, and gin - the simpler stepson of jenever - in England.
The history of the beverage can be learned at the National Jenever Museum, situated in the northern Belgian city of Hasselt in a building that long served as a distillery. At the end of a tour, visitors are invited to purchase a glass of one of the 150 different types of jenever on offer at the museum's splendid bar. It is particularly worth tasting the special gin produced by the museum's own distillery, which operates 10 days a year and turns out only 1,000 bottles.
The technique of distilling alcoholic beverages came to Europe from Egypt. At first, distilled wine was viewed as a medication - it was called aqua vitae, the water of life. There are descriptions from Flanders going back to the 13th century of the virtues of a distilled liquid flavored with juniper berries, which was used as a remedy for stomachaches and various digestive problems. Washing with water that had been boiled with juniper was recommended to people sufferring from skin conditions. And in the 14th century, the smoke that was created by the burning of juniper branches was used to decontaminate locations afflicted by the Great Plague.
In the absence of other medications, three drops of distilled wine in the morning, and three more in the evening, were considered a cure for nearly any illness. To augment its curative powers, various flavorings and fruit were added to the medication. It incidentally emerged that the medication "causes people to forget their troubles, makes their heart rejoice and renders them strong and courageous."
No wonder, then, that the recommended dosage was upped. By the end of the 15th century the medication was already called brandy, it was administered by the glass rather than by the drop, and it was prepared in home kitchens.
Climate changes and harsh cold spells in the Low Countries led to the disappearnce of the vineyards, and wine became a rare and expensive imported product. In the absence of wine, the Flemish began to distill beer, which is based on malt - derived mostly from barley but also from wheat, rye, corn and other grains. The grains themselves endowed the alcohol with a fine aroma and a richness of flavors that distinguished it from other beverages.
In the 19th century, grain-based jenever became nearly extinct, and in its stead the Flemish began producing an inferior beverage with the same name, based on cheaper raw materials (potatoes, sugar) and methods of mass production. The new jenever was very strong (50 percent alcohol), but inexpensive and therefore readily accessible. By the second half of the century, the average Belgian was already drinking 9.5 liters of cheap jenever a year. The authorities were obliged to intervene once more, World War I had its effect (the Germans confiscated the copper kettles that were used for distilling, and melted them down for weapons) and consumption of the beverage declined considerably.
At the start of the 20th century, there was renewed interest in the classic grain-alcohol based jenever. Nowadays the distillation process is carried out at only nine distilleries in Belgium, which also age the special alcohol in oaken casks and in turn sell it to about 60 producers around the country. Each of these producers flavors the alcohol according to its own secret recipe and thus concocts its own individually characteristic jenever.
When one encounters Belgian jenever, it is best to confirm that it has indeed been produced from grains (graanjenever) by the old method (systeme vieux), and then to drink it slowly from small tulip glasses, preferably stemmed, with the opening smaller than the base. A small swirl of the beverage in the glass enables the alcohol to strike the nose. After that come the special aromas - which have their sources in the grains and the juniper - that prepare the mind and the palate for tasting.
doramg@haaretz.co.il