Tasting

A genuine Hasseltse Graanjenever tastes first of bread, not of juniper. The moutwijn brings malty, slightly nutty notes. In aged versions, a hint of caramel sometimes appears. Only in the finish does the resinous herb become noticeable at all. This sets the tasting experience clearly apart from a London Dry Gin, where juniper and citrus usually take center stage right away. You could almost mistake the aroma for a grain spirit before any sense of alcohol even reaches the nose.

Worth trying as an example is the Oude Graanjenever from Filliers in Deinze. It shows a pronounced barrel character and a round, almost whisky-like body. Also worth seeking out is a jenever from the Smeets brand, now continued under different ownership. It reflects the classic, somewhat lighter Hasselt style, as it was historically distilled in the town itself. Both bottles are available in Belgium and, through specialist retailers, internationally as well.

A small, narrow glass is all you need for tasting. It should be chilled, though not necessarily straight from the freezer if you want to pick up on finer aromas. A first sip taken without swirling beforehand shows most clearly how much malt wine is actually in the bottle. Chilling it too aggressively numbs precisely these nuances, leaving the palate free to detect the subtle differences between batches and aging levels.

Anyone tasting gin and jenever side by side quickly notices the difference in the underlying concept. Gin distills aromatics onto a neutral alcohol base. Jenever already brings flavor from the grain itself. Two paths to the same juniper character, starting from completely different points, and it's exactly this contrast that makes the tasting so instructive.