Genever Crock Bottle Zuidam 35% 70cl

Zuidam Genever is hand crafted in the traditional distillery that is owned and operated by the Zuidam Family. More than 50 years of experience in distilling of exclusive spirits and a constant search for perfection has led to this exquisite line of genevers.

The malted barley, rye and corn used for the Zuidam Genevers are milled by traditional windmills. In using windmills for milling their malted barley the distillery helps preserve the important Dutch heritage of the world famous windmills. Even more importantly the traditional millstones of the windmills slowly grind the malted barley into flour. This traditional way of milling causes almost no increase in the temperature of the grain and thus helps preserve the wonderful aromas.

After the milling the mashing begins by adding hot water to the corn, rye and malted barley. The hot water triggers the enzymes to convert the starch from the grain into sugars. The process takes about 8 hours per batch. The resulting Mash is cooled to 20 Celsius and pumped to the fermentation tank.

In the fermentation tank the fermentation takes place in small batches at a very low temperature to give these genevers its fruity flavours. The fermentation takes about 5 days. This is much longer than is customary but is essential to allow for the delicate flavours to form.

At the end of this 5 day fermentation the resulting mash is distilled tree times in handcrafted copper pot stills before we find the distillate clean and fruity enough for our Genevers. For Korenwijn we distill the mash four times. The small stills have an extraordinary large copper surface if you compare them to the large stills used elsewhere. The extra contact between the alcohol vapors and the copper helps to eliminate any unwanted substances and also stimulates the formation of the complex and fruity esters. The small stills thus produce a very delicate and fruity new spirit.

Part of this new spirit is then distilled again over a secret mixture of botanicals (among others, Juniper, Liquorice root, Aniseed). Then everything is blended together before putting it into the barrels.

After the careful distillation the Genever is aged in small barrels. We use new barrels of American White Oak as well as barrels that have previously held Bourbon or Olorosso Sherry. The reason why our Genever ages rather quickly is that we use new barrels or young barrels and we store the barrels in a warm and dry warehouse. The downside is that the evaporation losses are rather high. Typically the Angels Share is between 4% and 5% per year.

After all the time and care it takes to make our products we hope you can enjoy them in the same way. Relax when you try them and take your time so you can fully enjoy their unique character.