Voerman Vieux - Dutch Superior Spiced Brandy

our story

Renowned beverage journalist Ingmar Voerman combined forces with spirit entrepreneur Jos Zonneveld in 2020 to bring back and improve the forgotten Dutch spirit Vieux.

At one of the oldest family distilleries in Schiedam we started our journey to make the best vieux ever, and to craft a very unconventional spirit: a spiced brandy. First challenge was to find the ideal brandy base that showcased pure grape character, barrel ageing characteristics and provided a canvas to paint with natural botanicals.

Introduction

Voerman Vieux – Superior Dutch Spiced Brandy – is a handcrafted, quality reinvention of a traditional Dutch spirit. In Dutch history, vieux is a notorious yet beloved spirit designed to imitate the flavour profile of the world’s favourite brandy (cognac). We’ve turned this cheeky tradition upside down, and looked for a new approach that genuinely can be called ‘superior’. Made with a base of the finest French Limousin oak aged grape brandy, which we enriched and spiced with distillates and extracts of natural botanicals.

History

The name ‘Voerman’ means koetsier (coachman), which was the nickname for a glass of vieux. Vieux was called koetsiers cognac or a koetsiertje in Dutch. Vieux has a long tradition as imitation cognac, it was the clever, cost effective and easy drinkable alternative for the expensive French stuff. Born somewhere in the 1800’s, Dutch cognac (as it was originally called) was first known as a 50/50 mixture of cognac and muscat wine (facon-cognac or wijncognac).