Zuidam Dutch Courage Dry Gin 44%

Zuidam Dutch Courage Dry Gin is hand crafted in the traditional distillery that is owned and operated by the Zuidam Family.

Zuidam Distillers is a family-owned distillery based in the town of Baarle-Nassau in southern Netherlands. They are well known for producing traditional genevers (and gin), Dutch whisky under the Millstone label and a range of liqueurs. The company was founded in 1975 by Fred van Zuidam in 1975 with one copper still. Today the company is run by Fred’s sons Patrick and Gilbert and has expanded to over three thousand square meters and there are four copper stills and over 1000 cask. Whisky production began later in 1998. Until recently all of their grain was milled in seven traditional windmills. Successful growth and an increase in production means this is no longer the case, although the grain milled by windmills is still a large component of their production. This way of milling causes almost no increase in the temperature of the grain and thus helps preserve the wonderful aromas. No artificial fragrances, colours and flavours are used.

Unlike their traditional Genevers, Zuidam Dutch Courage Dry Gin is made with a traditional dry gin recipe. It is made from 9 different botanicals – Juniper berries and iris root from Italy, coriander from Morocco, angelica root, fresh sweet oranges and lemons from Spain, real whole bean vanilla from Madagascar, liquorice root from India, cardamom pods from Ceylon. Zuidam distils each botanical separately and blends them afterwards. This is an unusual way to do things but affords Zuidam more control over the production process and allows them to obtain the purest flavours from each botanical (each botanical has flavours that peak at different temperatures). Zuidam Dutch Courage Dry Gin is aged for 3 months before bottling.

Why is it called Dutch Courage Gin?

The term Dutch Courage is derived from English soldiers fighting in the Thirty Years War in the 17th century who would swear by the warming properties of Gin on the body in cold weather. Apparently they named the drink Dutch Courage.