Smirnoff No. 55 Black Premium Vodka 70 cl 40%

Fife is not the first place you connect with Russian vodka. Yet on the river Leven stands Cameronbridge, a grain distillery laid out in 1824, where spirit has run without a break for two centuries. The black Smirnoff is made here, a long way from Moscow and close to the North Sea.

Expert description

Smirnoff No. 55 Black Premium Vodka is a British Vodka made from wheat, handled small batch in a copper pot still and bottled at 40%.

The bottle is meant as a nod to the vodka the house made before it became a worldwide bar standard. Pyotr Smirnov started out in Moscow in the 1860s, and back then the spirit went through copper rather than endless ranks of charcoal filters. The copper pot still used for No. 55 is over 150 years old and dates from exactly that period.

Small batch is not decoration on the label here. Batches are kept small enough for the still to handle the whole volume, and the spirit is then given a single pass through birch charcoal. By comparison, the red No. 21 is cleaned again and again until it is as neutral as the technique allows. The black one is permitted to keep some of the grain.

You notice it plainly in the mouth. The vodka is round and warm rather than sharp, carries an oily weight across the tongue and closes with a spiced pull. It is built to be drunk neat and with food, not to be buried under tomato juice.

Tasting notes

Nose

Warm and round. Baked wheat bread and a suggestion of liquorice root, over a layer of toasted almond.

Palate

Full and oily. The grain sweetness sits heavily in the middle, and a dry spiced nudge arrives towards the end to cut through it.

Finish

A soft close with warmth rather than bite. Liquorice and white pepper hold longest.

Specifications

Name: Smirnoff No. 55 Black Premium Vodka
Producer: Smirnoff
Region/Country: Fife, Scotland
Type: British Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Small batch in copper pot still, filtered once through birch charcoal
EAN no.: 5410316265164
Serving suggestion: Cool and neat alongside rich, salty food, or in a Vodka Martini with very little vermouth.

Flavour profile

Round · Warm · Oily · Spiced

Did you know?

Cameronbridge got its own bioenergy plant in 2013 and became the first distillery in the world to combine biomass combustion with water recovery and anaerobic digestion. The plant covers most of the energy the site uses. Your bottle of vodka was, in other words, cooked on the distillery's own waste.

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Frequently asked questions about Smirnoff No. 55 Black Premium Vodka

Can you taste the difference between No. 55 and red Smirnoff?

Yes, and the gap is not small. The red is filtered so many times that it has been deliberately emptied of character and built for mixing. The black has been through copper and filtered only once, so grain sweetness, weight and spice remain in the glass.

What should I eat with it?

Something fatty and salty. Smoked salmon, herring, cured trout, caviar or a plate of salted nuts. The oily texture handles the fat without vanishing, and the spice on the close resets the palate between bites. It can also stand in for a schnapps after a heavy meal.

Should it be served ice cold?

No, cool is better. At freezer temperature both the roundness and the spice shut down and you are left with plain strength. Around ten degrees is where the grain and the liquorice get room. Take it out of the fridge a quarter of an hour before serving.

Why only one filtration?

Because every filtration removes flavour along with the impurities. Activated charcoal binds both fusel oils and aroma compounds, so a single pass is enough to clean without emptying the distillate. That is the whole idea behind the black label.

What does the number 55 mean?

It is a recipe number, not a strength or an age. 21 is the red bottle, 55 is this one, and the figures point to different recipes in the house range. They tell you something about the method, not about how strong the vodka is.

Which cocktails work?

The dry, simple ones. Vodka Martini, Vesper or a Vodka Soda with lemon peel, where there is room to taste the base. In a Bloody Mary, a White Russian or other heavy drinks the work done in the copper pot still is lost. See more ideas in our range of Vodka.

Where is it made?

At Cameronbridge in Fife, Scotland, the oldest and largest grain distillery in the country. The site was founded by John Haig in 1824 and was among the first to adopt column distillation in the 1830s. The copper pot still for No. 55 stands in the same complex.