San Francisco, 1992. An inventor with not a single day of drinks trade behind him decided a vodka ought to be distilled until there was almost nothing left to strip away. The cobalt blue bottle that came out of the experiment still sits on back bars all over the world.
Expert description
Skyy Vodka is an American Vodka from San Francisco, distilled four times from American grain and bottled at 40%.
The man behind it was Maurice Kanbar, an inventor and businessman long before he was a vodka producer. When he put Skyy Vodka on the market in 1992 it arrived as the first quadruple-distilled and triple-filtered vodka in the United States. The thinking was simple: every extra pass through the column leaves less of the heavier compounds that otherwise show up in the nose as harshness.
The grain is grown in the United States, the filtration happens three times, and the water comes from the west coast. The brand now belongs to Gruppo Campari, the Italian house behind Campari and Aperol, so a vodka born in San Francisco has ended up in an Italian portfolio.
The character is neutral in the best sense of the word. There are no edges, no bitterness, and only a faint grain note holds on once the vodka meets ice and citrus. That is exactly why it has survived three decades of shifting cocktail fashion: it lets the other ingredients do the talking.
Tasting notes
Nose
Cool and almost tight-lipped. A pale grain note sits there with a faint sweetness, and no alcohol prickle at all.
Palate
Smooth and lightly oily. The grain gives a discreet sweetness, and halfway across the mouth a saline, mineral pull appears before a mild pepper edge rounds things off.
Finish
Short and dry. It lets go quickly and leaves behind neither bitterness nor burn.
Specifications
Name: Skyy Vodka
Producer: Skyy Vodka
Region/Country: San Francisco, USA
Type: American Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Quadruple distilled, triple filtered
Serving suggestion: Ice cold in a small glass, or as the base of a Cosmopolitan or Moscow Mule where lime and ginger get room to work.
Flavour profile
Neutral · Smooth · Lightly mineral · Discreetly grain-sweet
Did you know?
In 2021 Skyy Vodka was relaunched with water enriched with Pacific Minerals, drawn from the coastal waters around San Francisco. That is an unusual move in a trade where most producers head the other way and take as much out of the water as they possibly can.
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