Blood oranges grow in only a few places on earth, and the best of them are the slopes around Etna in Sicily. Volcanic soil, cold nights and burning days give the fruit its dark red colour and the bittersweet edge an ordinary orange never develops. That edge is what this bottle is built around.
Expert description
Whitley Neill Blood Orange is an English Vodka flavoured with extract of Sicilian blood oranges and bottled at 43%.
Whitley Neill is an English house with a family distilling history reaching back to 1762, and the current distiller Johnny Neill is the eighth generation. The brand grew large on gin, travelling the world for botanicals, and the same approach sits behind the vodkas: find a raw material with character in one particular place and build the bottle around it.
The base is a clean grain vodka, and blood orange extract sits on top of it. The interesting part is the strength. Where most flavoured vodkas drop to 37.5% or lower once sugar and flavouring are in, this one holds 43%. That means the citrus does not drown in sweetness, and the bottle genuinely works as a cocktail base rather than only as a shot.
In the glass it comes straight at you. There is orange peel, juice and a trace of the bitter pith you know from a fresh blood orange, and beneath it the vodka itself lies as a clean, dry floor. It is not subtle, but it was never built to be.
Tasting notes
Nose
Fresh blood orange and grated orange zest, clear and direct. Behind it sits a faint spiced note, close to cloves.
Palate
Juicy and tart with orange peel and a light bitterness from the white pith. The grain base keeps it dry, and the 43% delivers a warm push halfway through.
Finish
Medium with peel and bitter orange. The sweetness drops away quickly, leaving a dry citrus edge.
Specifications
Name: Whitley Neill Blood Orange
Producer: Whitley Neill
Region/Country: England
Type: English Vodka
ABV: 43%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Grain vodka flavoured with blood orange extract
EAN no.: 5011166054788
Serving suggestion: With tonic and a slice of orange, or in a Blood Orange Mule with ginger beer and lime.
Flavour profile
Blood orange · Tart · Bittersweet · Dry
Did you know?
43% is unusually high for a flavoured vodka. The great majority sit at 37.5%, because added sugar and flavouring dilute the alcohol and because lower strength costs less in duty. Whitley Neill has kept the strength up, and that is why the citrus stands so sharply in a drink over ice.
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