DeKuyper discovers secret historic liqueurs stash

Dutch liqueurs group De Kuyper may relaunch its historic Vieille Maison liqueur after discovering a secret stash of its products from the 1930s.

Amongst the find, 2,640 bottles of vintage genever in small jars were discovered

The group uncovered the find of nearly 4,000 vintage bottles of liqueurs and genever in a shed in Austria after the Schiedam Genever Museum received a tip off from a local.

Henk Hettinga, curator of the Shiedam Genever Museum accompanied De Kuyper archivist Theo Dolleman to investigate the find, and wound up buying the entire batch – first thought to consist of just 15 cases.

“De Kuyper is a family business that goes back over three centuries,” said De Kuyper CEO Ben van Doesburgh. “This batch is part of that history. We had to have it.”

The find is thought to be a delivery made to Austian importer Lauda in the 1930s, and consists of apricot brandy, anisette, mandarinette liqueur, Kummel liqueur, cherry brandy and genever packed into jars and old beer bottles.

“In the forties the glass factories were out of action and everyone used anything they could get their hands on as a bottle,” explained Hettinga.

Also amongst the find were 140 bottles of Vieille Maison, a fruit liqueur consisting of over 14 ingredients, which has not been part of the De Kuyper product range for over 40 years.

Former CEO Bob de Kuyper, having tasted the product for himself, said it reminded him of the days when his grandfather produced Vieille Maison himself.

“Tasting it really gave me a feeling of déjà vu,” he said. “Perhaps we should reintroduce this liqueur, it’s practically screaming for a comeback. I’ll talk to my son Marc de Kuyper to see what he thinks of a comeback of the Vieille Maison. An old respectable liqueur with a new look.”

After tasting the liqueurs and genever, the De Kuyper team found all had retained their flavour except the Kummel liqueur which was said to have lost its balance.

Huub van Doorne, CEO of separate Dutch liqueurs company Lucas Bols, recently damned his country’s government and genever producers for doing “ a lousy job” of promoting their national spirit genever, which he describes as “the forgotten spirit”.