Cognacton english

Dutch Falsifications

In the Netherlands, too, many brandies were sold under the cognac flag. This practice only really stopped after 1960-1961.
The Dutch cognacs were often not even based on a grape distillate. A small quantity of cognac was added to a mixture of molasses alcohol with muscatel wine and water, or sometimes just a cognac essence.
The Dutch ‘koetsiertje’ was a cognac that was half filled with white wine.

The Netherlands signed the Treaty of Madrid (1891) as early as 1893, but it was not enforced until well after the Second World War after the French had initiated some court cases in the late 1950s.

Dutch producers and importers were given 2 years from 1959 to invent a new name. Eventually it became ‘vieux’.

Not many 70cl bottles have survived. I have therefore added some examples of miniatures and of advertisements: