Often people seem confused about the spelling of whisky. Basically the Scots spell it without the “e” (so: whisky)
and the Americans and the Irish spell it with an “e” (so: whiskey). But this is part of the law in Scotland, not in
Ireland and the USA. So while most Irish and American whiskey’s are spelled with an “e”, some like Maker’s Mark
or Dickel choose to label their products “whisky”.

To call your product whisky there are several rules that need to be followed, although every territory in the world
has its own set of laws. Basically most regulations worldwide follow the Scottish rules. Whisky is a spirit made
from cereals, water and yeast. It can not be distilled above 94.8% ABV and not be bottled below 40% ABV. Also it
needs to mature for three years in a wooden cask. No additional flavorings or sweeteners may be added. You
may filter the whisky and add caramel for coloring though. And of course we have to ask ourselves if a wood
finish (like a port cask, rum cask, etc.) is not actually adding extra flavors to the whisky.

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Genever or jenever is a unique Dutch product that can only be made in The Netherlands, Belgium and two small
regions of France and Germany with traditionally Dutch speaking populations. It is a juniper-flavoured drink, where there must be a certain percentage of so-called “malted wine”. This is basically a new make spirit from grains that is not distilled above 50%, so the grainy flavour is kept. Juniper and other botanicals are distilled with GNS and the distillate is mixed with the malted wine.

A young genever (meaning the new style) must contain between 1.5 and 5% malted wine, an old genever (the old
style) needs to contain above 15% malted wine. A special category is the “koornwijn” (corn wine) that contains at
least 51% malted wine, but doesn’t need to have juniper berries in the mix.

Genever is getting back into vogue after a long absence. During the end of the 19th century millions of bottles of
genever where exported to the United States. The first written cocktail recipes actually call for genever as a base
ingredient, instead of gin. During the 1920’s prohibition made an end to the export and sales collapsed.

Smugglers made sure the Americans had plenty of Scotch whisky and English gin in their Speakeasies. The
recipes for cocktails were rewritten with gin instead of genever. In current times mixologists are experimenting
with the originals recipes again, using a genever as a base. You can now even find non-Dutch genevers with
names like “Geneva” or “Dutch style gin”. Also the German drink Wacholder is basically a genever, but from the
Bavarian regions.

Genever is a very old drink. It got mentioned in the 12th century already, well ahead of other spirits. There is a strong connection between genever and health. Originally, it was sold as a medicine against the black death. From the 16th century onwards, its recipe was tailored to help Dutch sailors survive the gruesome voyages to the East or West, that could take up to 9 months. How genever helped? Well, juniper is a diuretic, coriander protects the stomach lining, and St.-John’s Worth is an anti-depressant. All help was needed to survive the rotten food and loneliness at sea, apparently.

The Dutch that sailed the world also spread genever. In Africa it was the used as money. Henry Stanley, trying to discover lost tribes throughout the darkest parts of Africa, hated it, because wherever he came, he was invited to drink some … establishing that the tribe or village he visited had had prior contact with what was then called “civilization”.

In the horn of Africa, weddings are still blessed with genever. And if there isn’t any, well, then the marriage starts off on the wrong food and probably won’t last long. Now that’s another reason to drink more genever: it is a marriage saver!

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While cognac is recognized as a famous brandy from France all around the world, it’s sibling armagnac is far less
known. Armagnac is a brandy made from grapes from the Gascogne region in the South of France. It’s actually
the oldest wine brandy that was ever described; in 1310 tthe cardinal Vital du Four wrote about the 40 benefits of
drinking armagnac. In those days the spirit was probably closer to an eau-de-vie or fruit brandy than to the
armagnac we know today.

Armagnac trade really took off during the 16th and 17th century. It was introduced at the courts of King Louis XV
and Dutch traders invested heavily in stills in the Armagnac region. The Dutch were the biggest exporters of
brandy (both cognac and armagnac) to England and avoided trading blocks for French wines by distilling the wine
first. The word “brandy” comes from the Dutch word “brandewijn”, meaning “burnt (distilled) wine”.

The unique thing about armagnac is that it’s once distilled in a so-called continuous Armagnac alambic. Here
fresh wine is used not only at the base of the spirit but also as a cooling agent. The wine is continuously flowing
from the bottom of the cooler and cools the serpetine that turns the vapors back into a liquid. Then it’s forced to
the top and enters the distillation column, which contains plates with bubble caps. The now warm wine flows over
the plate to the boiler, while the vapors from the boiler rise up and mix with the esters from the wine. There is a
continuous exchange of esters between the wine and the vapors. This unique way of distilling gives armagnac
it’s special flavors, which are more like wine than cognac.

A variety of grapes can be used, but basically all armagnac is made from uni-blanc, folle blanche, baco and
colombard. New oak is used for the first months to years of maturation and the new make spirit is then transferred
into used barrels. Here the aging can take up to 50 years, although most armagnacs are between 2 to 8 years
old.

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Mastika or mastiha is a unique Greek spirit from the island of Chios. The drink is flavored with the resin from the
mastic tree (Pistacia Lentiscus) and is often served as a liqueur after dinner. The resin gives a pine like flavor,
that can also be very earthy. The same resin is often used in the Greek wine retsina.

There are different ways of making mastika. The most traditional way is first distilling pomace from grapes into a
high ABV spirit, similar to grappa. The resin is harvested by making small cuts into the trees. This has to be done
carefully; when you cut too deep or at the wrong place, the resin either doesn’t drip out or contains no flavor. The
people of Chios are known for treating each tree like an individual that “shouldn’t suffer from the cut”.

The resin is then dried out in the sun, so it forms crystals. These crystals are added to the distillate and the whole batch is
redistilled. This has to be done carefully, as the resin can stick to the sides of the boiler and burn, ruining the whole batch. After distillation the spirit is diluted and sugar is added, bringing the flavor of the resin more to the forefront. Other distillers produce an oil from the mastika and add this to the distillation to prevent the scorching
of the crystals.

A special version of mastika is made by fermenting the resin itself. This means the real resin flavor is partially
lost and the result is more like a honey mead than the original mastika.

Mastic running from a Chios’ mastika tree …

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Pálinka is a traditional fruit brandy from Eastern Europe. It can be made from all kind of fruits, but mostly plums,
apricots and pears are used. The name pálinka is a protected geographical region and only fruit brandy’s from
Hungary and the “Burgenland”-region of Austria can carry this name. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia it is known as pálenka, and in Romania, Italy, and Greece as palincă. So slightly different spellings. When grains are used instead of fruit the
drink is known as Tótpálinka. There is also a version made of pomace, similar to the Italian grappa which is then
called Törkölypálinka or just Törköly.

To create a fruit brandy that’s like pálinka you start with mashing and fermenting your fruits. Often fruits like pears
or plums start to ferment instantly, because there’s natural yeast on the skins of the fruit. Be sure to remove all
stones and stalks. The stones contain cyanide, which give you a lovely almondy flavor when distilled, but is
really toxic. The stalks will give you a lot of pectine in your mash, which will turn into methanol during distillation.
Also undesired. You can add more yeast to the fermentation to keep it going. If you want to experiment with the
fermentation, adding special wine yeasts (like chardonnay or tokay) will give you more fruity flavors.
Fermentation can take up to 20 days.

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