A standard for Russian vodka was set in 1894, and everyone has had to measure up to it since. Russian Standard took the name literally. Platinum is the taut version of the house style, where the spirit gets one extra pass through the filters before it reaches the bottle.

Expert description

Russian Standard Platinum is a Russian Vodka from St Petersburg, distilled from Russian winter wheat and bottled at 40%.

The house was founded in 1998 by Roustam Tariko, and in 2006 a large distillery was completed in St Petersburg. The wheat is winter wheat from the Russian steppes, sown in autumn and left in the ground through the cold before harvest. The water is soft glacial water from Lake Ladoga, north-east of the city and the largest lake in Europe.

What separates Platinum from the house Original lies in the filtration. After the usual charcoal filtration the spirit is run through silver. Silver is far less common than charcoal in vodka production, and the house uses the step to catch the last impurities the charcoal has let through.

You notice it in the texture. Where Original keeps a clearer grain bite, Platinum feels denser and more polished, without the wheat being polished away altogether. Nothing is added to soften it; the work sits in the distillation and the two filtration stages.

Tasting notes

Nose

Clean and reserved with a pale grain note. A trace of lemon peel and something close to freshly laundered linen.

Palate

Dense and oily. The wheat lays down a dry sweetness, a fine thread of aniseed appears mid-palate, and only then does the pepper report for duty.

Finish

Medium and dry. The warmth stays put for a moment, and at the very end the grain stands alone.

Specifications

Name: Russian Standard Platinum
Distillery: Russian Standard
Region/Country: St Petersburg, Russia
Type: Russian Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Charcoal filtered and then silver filtered
EAN no.: 4603400000180
Serving suggestion: Ice cold in a small glass alongside something salty and rich, or in a Martini where the purity has room.

Flavour profile

Clean · Dense · Dry grain note · Lightly peppered

Did you know?

The 1894 standard is often tied to the chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, the man behind the periodic table. He did work on mixtures of alcohol and water, and his name has followed Russian vodka ever since, regardless of how much can genuinely be credited to him.

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Blue has always been the bartender shortcut to making a glass look like something. Here the colour comes from Andalusia, from a house that has otherwise spent more than a century on cask aged wine, and behind the blue hides passion fruit.

Expert description

Bodegas Cruz Conde VDKA Blue is a Spanish Vodka Liqueur with passion fruit from Montilla in Andalusia, bottled at 17%.

The spirit is made at the house distillery, Destilerias La Cordobesa, where copper stills from the first half of the twentieth century are still in service. It is the same place the family produces anis, pacharan, brandy, rum, gin and whisky, and the VDKA range is simply the most modern branch on a fairly old tree.

At 17% Blue falls outside the vodka category. The European Union draws the line at 37.5%, which is why the producer calls the range a spirit drink derived from vodka. That is a deliberate decision: a liqueur at this strength can carry a whole drink without making it strong, and it can be poured generously without taking command of the glass.

The passion fruit is the real difference. It brings a tart tropical edge that suits the loud blue far better than plain sweetness would. Mixed with citrus and ice it becomes the kind of drink people photograph before they drink it.

Tasting notes

Nose

Passion fruit and a hint of mango. Lemon peel and a light sugar sweetness sit behind them.

Palate

Sweet and tart at once, and lively with it. The tropical fruit fills the middle and the acidity cuts through before the sweetness can settle.

Finish

Short, fresh and slightly tart. The fruit lets go quickly and the mouth comes clean again.

Specifications

Name: Bodegas Cruz Conde VDKA Blue
Producer: Bodegas Cruz Conde
Region/Country: Montilla, Andalusia, Spain
Type: Spanish Vodka Liqueur with passion fruit
ABV: 17%
Size: 70 CL
EAN no.: 8413026817347
Serving suggestion: Over crushed ice with pineapple juice and lime, or topped with sparkling water in a tall glass.

Flavour profile

Passion fruit · Tropical · Sweet and tart · Cocktail friendly

Did you know?

The same distillery in Montilla also makes whisky and agave distillates. An Andalusian bodega that fills Pedro Ximenez into casks and runs agave through copper stills belongs among the rarities of Spain.

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In Montilla the bodega stands with whitewashed walls and cool half darkness, and behind them lie the casks of fino and Pedro Ximenez. Somewhere else in the same house they are filling bottles with red. Not wine, but vodka and red fruit, an Andalusian side road nobody saw coming.

Expert description

Bodegas Cruz Conde VDKA Red is a Spanish Vodka Liqueur with red fruits from Montilla in Andalusia, bottled at 17%.

Bodegas Cruz Conde was founded in 1902 by the army commandant Rafael Cruz Conde and sits in Montilla south of Cordoba. The house is known first of all for wines from D.O. Montilla-Moriles, but alongside the wine the family has spent decades building a broad spirits catalogue: brandy, vermouth, anis, rum, gin and, yes, vodka.

The 17% deserves a pause. The producer itself calls the VDKA range a spirit drink derived from vodka, and below 37.5% it cannot legally be sold as vodka in the European Union. In practice it is a vodka liqueur: sweetened, coloured and dialled down in strength so it can be mixed without shouting over the rest of the glass.

Red is the red fruit version. The colour is strong and almost neon in the glass, and the sweetness arrives with the first sip, but the fruit carries a light acidity that keeps it from reading as pure sugar. It was designed as a cocktail ingredient, and that is where it makes the most sense.

Tasting notes

Nose

Strawberry and raspberry, clear and straight up. Behind them sits a boiled sweet tone and a faint hint of cherry.

Palate

Sweet and light bodied. Red fruit fills the entire middle, while the alcohol registers only as a mild warmth right at the end.

Finish

Short and berry sweet. A touch of acidity turns up and clears the mouth faster than the sweetness suggests.

Specifications

Name: Bodegas Cruz Conde VDKA Red
Producer: Bodegas Cruz Conde
Region/Country: Montilla, Andalusia, Spain
Type: Spanish Vodka Liqueur with red fruits
ABV: 17%
Size: 70 CL
EAN no.: 8413026817354
Serving suggestion: Over ice cubes with lemon soda, or as the colour in a simple berry cocktail with lime.

Flavour profile

Red fruits · Sweet · Light · Cocktail friendly

Did you know?

The wines of Montilla-Moriles mature under a veil of yeast just as sherry does, but they are usually never fortified. The Pedro Ximenez grape turns so sugar rich in the Andalusian heat that the wine reaches the strength the flor needs entirely on its own.

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Most vodkas try to strip everything out. This one adds a single thing at the end: a distillate of Indonesian long pepper, dosed so carefully that you have to go looking for it. That decision makes an otherwise quiet bottle step forward.

Expert description

Organic Spirits Vodka is an Organic Nordic Vodka, column distilled from winter wheat and bottled at 40%.

The method is short. The winter wheat is column distilled, after which the spirit is blended with water from Kløvermarken to reach the right strength. Right at the end the vodka is seasoned with a distillate of long pepper from Indonesia — and seasoned should be taken literally, because the quantity is small enough that it never becomes a spiced vodka.

The effect is clear enough once you know what to look for. The wheat sweetness gains a warm edge and a lightly floral note that would not be there otherwise. The rest is as vodka is allowed to be: simple, elegant and with nothing to prove.

Tasting notes

Nose

Pale and light. Wheat and a suggestion of lemongrass, with a warm spiced undertone a long way back.

Palate

Silky with a clear wheat sweetness. The pepper arrives late as warmth rather than as sharpness.

Finish

Clean and medium. The spice holds on longest and leaves a pleasant warmth in the throat.

Specifications

Name: Organic Spirits Vodka
Producer: Organic Spirits
Region/Country: The Nordics
Type: Organic Nordic Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Column distilled from winter wheat
Serving suggestion: As a shot with blinis and caviar, or in an Espresso Martini or Cosmopolitan.

Flavour profile

Silky · Wheat sweet · Warm spiced · Elegant

Did you know?

Long pepper is not black pepper. It is a different plant, where the whole elongated spike is dried and used as a single piece of spice rather than as separate corns. The flavour is sweeter and more floral than black pepper, and the heat builds more slowly.

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A single blade lies across the inside of the bottle. It is not decoration added afterwards — it is the whole reason the liquid shifts colour in the light and smells of something between new-mown hay and baked apple.

Expert description

Sobieski Herb de Pologne is a Polish Vodka made from pure Dankowskie rye, flavoured with bison grass and herbs and bottled at 40%.

The name translates literally as herb of Poland. The base is the same rye the house uses across its range: Dankowskie, grown in Poland and run once through the column at Starogard Gdański. On top of that sits an infusion of bison grass together with other natural herbs, and every bottle gets a blade of its own.

Bison grass is Hierochloe odorata in Latin and grows on damp meadows and forest clearings in eastern Poland. The scent comes from coumarin, the same compound that makes new-mown hay and woodruff smell the way they do. That is why the vodka does not taste floral but green, dry and lightly baked.

The herbs carry it further than a plain grass vodka. Creamy vanilla sits under the grassy note, with rosemary, lavender and a clear knock of black pepper above it. The rye holds the whole thing together from below, so the bottle turns neither perfumed nor sweet.

Tasting notes

Nose

New-mown hay and woodruff, with a breath of baked apple and dried flowers behind.

Palate

Soft and grassy with creamy vanilla through the middle. Rosemary and lavender appear at the edges before black pepper cuts across.

Finish

Dry and long. The grass lingers, and at the end the rye is left standing as flour and pepper.

Specifications

Name: Sobieski Herb de Pologne
Distillery: Destylarnia Sobieski
Region/Country: Starogard Gdański, Poland
Type: Polish Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Single distilled in the tallest column in Poland and flavoured with bison grass
Serving suggestion: With cold clear apple juice and a squeeze of lime, or ice cold and neat in a small glass with smoked cheese.

Flavour profile

Grassy · Herbal · Vanilla soft · Peppery

Did you know?

Bison grass takes its name from the European bison that graze on it in the Polish forests. The plant is also called sweetgrass and has been used for incense and basket weaving in several cultures, long before anyone thought of putting it in a bottle.

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Black glass shuts the light out. No label, no transparency, just a skull shape in glossy onyx standing like a shadow among all the clear bottles. Inside, Mexican agave meets water from Newfoundland — two places with nothing whatsoever to do with one another.

Expert description

Crystal Head Onyx is a Canadian Vodka made from Blue Weber agave grown on a single farm in Mexico and bottled at 40%.

Onyx arrived in 2020 as the third expression in the range. The first was built on Canadian corn, the second on English wheat, and here the raw material is agave — the same plant behind Tequila. The agave comes from one single farm, and the spirit is then blended with Newfoundland water like the rest of the family. No oils, no sugars, nothing else added.

Crystal Head filters through Herkimer diamonds, semi-precious quartz crystals mined in Herkimer County in New York State. Whether the stones do anything chemically is open to argument, but the house has stuck with the method since 2008. What matters with Onyx is that the raw material is not distilled away. The agave sits waiting in the middle of the mouth.

Tasting notes

Nose

Freshly cut grass and white pepper, with a thread of citrus behind it. Drier and greener than a skull bottle usually promises.

Palate

Soft opening with a touch of spice and sweetness, until the agave arrives with its earthy grip. Sweet without ever turning sugary.

Finish

Medium. Green grass, pepper and citrus peel hang on while the sweetness slowly withdraws.

Specifications

Name: Crystal Head Onyx
Distillery: Crystal Head Vodka
Region/Country: Newfoundland, Canada
Type: Canadian Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
EAN no.: 627040411872
Serving suggestion: Cold in a small glass, or in a long drink with lime and grapefruit soda where the agave has room.

Flavour profile

Green · Peppery · Agave sweet · Dry finish

Did you know?

The black bottle is a tribute to the stone itself. Onyx is described as a protective stone, and Crystal Head points out that it lets no light through at all — the darker the stone, the more energy it is credited with. Glass and cap are therefore held in the same deep black.

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Dill belongs to a Finnish summer the way a swimming jetty and boiled new potatoes do. It goes in the crayfish pot, it goes over the grilled salmon, and at Lignell & Piispanen in Kuopio it has gone into the still.

Expert description

Gustav Dill Vodka is a Finnish Vodka from Lignell & Piispanen in Kuopio, aroma distilled from Finnish dill and bottled at 40%.

The house goes back to 1852, when Gustav Ranin founded the business in Kuopio, and the Gustav range carries his first name. The company is still officially called Oy Gust. Ranin and sits to this day in the same town beside Lake Kallavesi in Northern Savonia.

The dill is not added as an essence afterwards. It is aroma distilled in small batches, so the herbal character is drawn out through distillation itself rather than through blending. It is a handmade way of working, and it gives a noticeably cleaner dill character than a flavoured vodka usually carries.

The result is dry rather than sweet. The dill lies as a green, faintly aniseed tone across a smooth vodka base, with a mild spiced warmth through the middle. It stands up to being drunk neat from a cold glass, but it truly shows itself with tonic, where the quinine and the dill pull in the same direction.

Tasting notes

Nose

Freshly cut dill, clear and clean. A touch of fennel seed and green apple sits behind it.

Palate

Dry and smooth. The dill fills the middle with a light aniseed sweetness, and a mild peppery spice comes through towards the end.

Finish

Medium and herbal. The green note hangs on while the alcohol leaves almost without heat.

Specifications

Name: Gustav Dill Vodka
Distillery: Lignell & Piispanen
Region/Country: Kuopio, Finland
Type: Finnish Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Aroma distilled from Finnish dill, handmade in small batches
EAN no.: 6435302618617
Serving suggestion: Ice cold in a Vodka Tonic with a sprig of dill, or neat in a small glass alongside cured salmon.

Flavour profile

Dill · Dry · Herbal · Smooth

Did you know?

The distillery runs both a factory outlet and an Arctic Bar in Kuopio, where you can taste your way through the range on site. The Gustav name covers more than vodka too: there is a gin and a lingonberry and cloudberry liqueur under the same first name.

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The northern lights never hold still. They change colour while you watch and vanish before you have found the camera. The Aurora bottle attempts the same trick in glass: turn it a quarter of a rotation and the surface slides from green to violet to copper.

Expert description

Crystal Head Aurora is a Canadian Vodka distilled five times from English wheat and bottled at 40%.

Aurora reached the market in 2016 as the second expression from Crystal Head. Where the original is built on corn, the raw material here is English wheat, and that moves the flavour noticeably. Wheat delivers a tighter, more peppery spirit, while corn pulls towards creamy sweetness. The spirit is blended with Newfoundland water and nothing is added along the way.

The purity comes from five distillations and seven filtrations. The last three filtrations pass through layers of Herkimer diamonds, the semi-precious quartz crystals the house has used from the start. The bottle gets its metallised surface through a process that lays the colour unevenly across the glass, which is why no two bottles look quite the same.

Tasting notes

Nose

Crisp and dry. Delicate floral notes sit on top with a discreet breath of anise beneath them.

Palate

Warm and clearly peppercorn driven from the first sip. A small sweetness sits underneath, but the wheat leads all the way.

Finish

Dry, clean and warming. The pepper releases slowly and nothing sticky is left behind.

Specifications

Name: Crystal Head Aurora
Distillery: Crystal Head Vodka
Region/Country: Newfoundland, Canada
Type: Canadian Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Five times distilled
EAN no.: 62704041159
Serving suggestion: Cold in a Vodka Martini, where the peppercorn note is allowed to carry the drink.

Flavour profile

Peppery · Floral · Dry · Warming

Did you know?

No two Aurora bottles are identical. The iridescent metallised surface settles differently on every single unit, so the play of colour varies from bottle to bottle and shifts depending on the angle the light arrives from.

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Bimber is Polish slang for moonshine. It is not a random name for a distillery on an industrial estate in north west London. The founder's family has been distilling in Poland for generations, and the name is a nod to the kitchen table where it all started.

Expert description

Bimber London Vodka is an English Vodka from Bimber Distillery in Park Royal, distilled from wheat and barley and bottled at 40%.

Bimber opened in 2015 and is known above all for its Single Malt Whisky, which went from unknown to sought after in under five years. The distillery does almost everything itself: floor malting its own barley, fermenting slowly in wooden washbacks, distilling in direct fired copper pot stills and running its own cooperage. That is a way of working most Scottish distilleries abandoned on cost grounds long ago.

The vodka is made from wheat and barley and arrived so that bars could pour a house spirit with the same origin as the whisky. It has not been pushed so hard that all the grain is gone. A light citrus edge and a soft grain sweetness remain, which makes it more useful in a Vodka Martini than a fully stripped industrial vodka.

London has no long tradition in vodka, but the city has distilled gin for centuries, and that craft lineage is what Bimber leans on. The range today covers whisky, gin, vodka and a handful of cask aged curiosities, and volumes are still small enough that every batch gets tasted through.

Tasting notes

Nose

Clean and light with clear lemon peel on top. Beneath it sits a soft grain aroma, close to freshly milled flour.

Palate

Soft and rounded with a light sweetness from the wheat. The barley adds a little structure halfway through, and the citrus freshness holds.

Finish

Short to medium and clean. The citrus stays longest, and there is no sharp alcohol edge.

Specifications

Name: Bimber London Vodka
Distillery: Bimber Distillery
Region/Country: London, England
Type: English Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Distilled from wheat and barley
EAN no.: 5060444430561
Serving suggestion: Cool and neat, or in a Vodka Martini with lemon peel. Works well in a Vodka Soda with lime too.

Flavour profile

Citrus · Soft · Grainy · Clean

Did you know?

Bimber is one of very few distilleries in the United Kingdom that floor malts its own barley. It is a slow, space hungry method where the grain is turned by shovel on a floor rather than in a machine, and British spirits production largely gave it up during the twentieth century.

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A rye field in northern Poland looks like very little in August. The ears are long, thin and slightly unruly, and the yield falls short of wheat. Dankowskie gets planted anyway, and there is a reason somebody keeps holding on to it.

Expert description

Sobieski Estate Vodka Single Rye is a Polish Vodka distilled exclusively from Dankowskie rye and bottled at 40%.

Dankowskie is an old Polish rye variety picked for flavour rather than for yield. It gives less per hectare than modern strains, but it carries a spiced, almost bready character across into the spirit, and that is the entire point of a single rye. There is no other grain in the bottle, no wheat to round the corners off.

The distillery sits in Starogard Gdański and counts among the oldest working spirit plants in Poland, with roots back to 1846. The rye runs through the house column, which at close to forty metres is the tallest in the country, and it passes through only once. One long run cleans the spirit without tearing the grain character out of it.

You notice it straight away. Sobieski Estate has not been polished down to flavourless neutrality; it lands somewhere between the clean bar vodka and the rustic old-school Polish bottlings. In the 70 cl format it is easy to keep in the freezer and pour from whenever a glass needs something spiced.

Tasting notes

Nose

Dry rye and a touch of dill. Behind it sits something mineral, close to wet flint.

Palate

Clean and angular. The grain arrives as flour and crust before a clear white pepper settles across the tongue.

Finish

Medium and dry. The pepper holds, and a faint nutty note turns up right at the very end.

Specifications

Name: Sobieski Estate Vodka Single Rye
Distillery: Destylarnia Sobieski
Region/Country: Starogard Gdański, Poland
Type: Polish Vodka
ABV: 37,5%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Single distilled in the tallest column in Poland
EAN no.: 5900226005634
Serving suggestion: Ice cold in a small glass with smoked fish, or in a Polish Mule with ginger beer and lime.

Flavour profile

Dry · Spiced · Bready · Mineral

Did you know?

There is a hall in the Vatican Museums called the Sala Sobieski. It is named after King Jan III Sobieski and dominated by Jan Matejko's enormous painting of the relief of Vienna in 1683 — the king this bottle carries the name of.

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Put it in a window in the afternoon. The light hits the glass at an angle and the skull throws colour across the worktop — red at one end, violet at the other. This is not a bottle you can set down discreetly.

Expert description

Crystal Head Rainbow is a Canadian Vodka distilled four times from Canadian corn and bottled at 40% in a rainbow coloured skull bottle.

The release is a limited edition made to mark Pride and to celebrate diversity and equality. Crystal Head works with LGBTQ+ communities year round and uses the bottle as a canvas: the decoration is applied through a process the house developed for itself, and the colours sit directly on the glass rather than on a label. Crystal Head bottles carry no paper label at all.

The liquid is the original vodka. The corn comes from Canadian fields, the spirit is run four times and then blended with water from Newfoundland. No glycerol, no citrus oils and no sugar are added, and filtration happens seven times, with three of those passes running over Herkimer diamonds.

Tasting notes

Nose

Neutral and grainy with a fine citrus note laid on top. The aroma is discreet and free of any alcohol sting.

Palate

Silky the whole way. A suggestion of sweetness is followed by clear vanilla, without ever turning perfumed.

Finish

Sweet and creamy. It closes gently and leaves a lightly milky impression behind.

Specifications

Name: Crystal Head Rainbow
Distillery: Crystal Head Vodka
Region/Country: Newfoundland, Canada
Type: Canadian Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Four times distilled
Edition: Pride, limited edition
Serving suggestion: Cold in an Espresso Martini, where the vanilla has something to push against.

Flavour profile

Soft · Vanilla sweet · Creamy · Neutral

Did you know?

There is not a single piece of paper on the bottle. Crystal Head has never used labels — all text and all decoration sit directly on the glass, and on the Rainbow edition that means the colours are part of the bottle rather than something that can be peeled off.

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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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Rhubarb belongs in the English kitchen garden, somewhere between the gooseberries and the hollyhocks. The stalks push up before anything else, tart and pink, and are gone again before summer has properly started. JJ Whitley has poured that short window into a bottle.

Expert description

JJ Whitley Handcrafted Rhubarb Vodka is an English Vodka carrying natural rhubarb flavour, bottled at 38.6%.

The range was launched in March 2016 by British drinks producer Halewood and started life as exactly four bottles: two gins and two vodkas, one of which was this. All four went out at the same strength. The inspiration was English countryside and kitchen garden rather than Eastern European tradition, and that runs right through the line-up.

The rhubarb arrives as natural flavour after distillation, not as raw material in the still. The balance sits closer to compote than to raw stalk, so sugar carries further than acidity. That makes the bottle easy to drink over ice, and it holds its own against tonic or lemonade. If you want the edge back, add lemon.

Tasting notes

Nose

Stewed rhubarb with sugar, direct and unmistakable. Underneath sits something green and stalky, close to fresh celery.

Palate

Sweetness lands first and takes up plenty of room. A dry stalk pulls through behind it, and right at the end a creamy note appears, like rhubarb fool.

Finish

Short and sweet with a slightly sticky feel. Acidity returns at the very end and tidies up.

Specifications

Name: JJ Whitley Handcrafted Rhubarb Vodka
Producer: JJ Whitley
Region/Country: England, United Kingdom
Type: English Vodka
ABV: 38.6%
Size: 70 CL
Serving suggestion: Over ice with a wedge of lemon, or topped with tonic and a mint leaf.

Flavour profile

Sweet · Rhubarb · Soft · Lightly tart

Did you know?

The name comes from the Whitley family, who began making spirits in Daresbury, Cheshire in 1762. The same line gave its name to Whitley Neill Gin, which belongs to the same house.

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Schiedam sits wedged in just west of Rotterdam and has been burning grain since the seventeenth century. At the town's peak, several hundred distilleries and malt mills stood side by side. A handful are left today, and one of them has had the same family in charge since 1691.

Expert description

Ketel One Vodka is a Dutch Vodka from the Nolet Distillery in Schiedam, distilled from 100% wheat and bottled at 40%.

The Nolet family has run the distillery for eleven generations, but the vodka is young by house standards. Carolus Nolet put it into production in 1983, and the name comes from Distilleerketel #1, a coal-fired copper pot still from 1864 that still stands on the floor in Schiedam. Part of the spirit comes off that still, the rest from modern columns, and the two are blended at the end.

After distillation the spirit runs over loose charcoal and then rests in tile-lined tanks until bottling. Every single batch is tasted by a member of the family before it is approved. It sounds like marketing, but it is how the house has worked from the start.

The combination of pot still and column is the whole difference. The column cleans, the copper pot still adds weight, and the result is a vodka that is neither empty nor heavy. That middle position is why it has ended up among the most called-for vodkas behind the bar in the world's best bars, as measured by trade titles such as Drinks International.

Tasting notes

Nose

Fresh and clean with a clear stroke of lemon peel. Underneath sits a pale wheat note and a suggestion of honey.

Palate

Crisp and light in the mouth. The wheat gives a fine sweetness, citrus lifts the middle, and a short dry warmth arrives towards the end.

Finish

Long by vodka standards and distinctly dry. The citrus note lingers without any sharp edges appearing.

Specifications

Name: Ketel One Vodka
Distillery: Nolet Distillery
Region/Country: Schiedam, the Netherlands
Type: Dutch Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Natural colour: Yes
Distillation method: Distilled from 100% wheat in copper pot still and column, filtered over charcoal
EAN no.: 8711566013701
Serving suggestion: Cool and neat in a small glass, or in a Dirty Martini where the citrus note carries the olive.

Flavour profile

Crisp · Citrus · Honey · Dry

Did you know?

The Nolet family has raised a windmill beside the distillery in Schiedam. It is called De Nolet, ranks among the tallest windmills in the world and supplies power to the production. Sails turning above a distillery are an unusual sight in a town otherwise known for its chimneys.

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An old power station in Hawick is full of copper again. The town lived on tweed and wool until the mills closed, and in 2018 steam started coming out of the chimney once more. Puffing Billy is the name of the still that steam comes from.

Expert description

Puffing Billy Steam Vodka is a Scottish Vodka from The Borders Distillery in Hawick, distilled from 100% Scottish Borders malted barley and bottled at 40%.

Please note: the distillery sits in Hawick in the Scottish Borders, that is in Scotland close to the English border. Older Danish product listings have placed this vodka in England.

The barley is grown within 35 miles of the distillery, and the house does the whole job itself. First a spirit is pot-distilled from the malted barley, then the distillate takes another trip through a specially commissioned Carterhead still. That still is the one named Puffing Billy, and the bottle is named after it.

A Carterhead still is rare and normally used for gin, where botanicals hang in a basket up in the neck and meet the rising vapour. Here the basket is filled with charcoal instead. The spirit is steamed through the charcoal while still in vapour form, rather than filtered as a liquid afterwards. The house calls it steam smoothed and claims to be the only producer in the world working this way.

The point is that ordinary filtration would take the grain character with it. Because the vodka is never filtered as a liquid, the malt is still in the glass and the texture is distinctly creamy. This is a vodka with something to say, even on its own.

Tasting notes

Nose

Surprisingly fruity for a vodka. Tropical fruit and citrus peel sit on top, with a soft malted layer underneath.

Palate

Creamy and round. Foam banana and a light vanilla sweetness from the barley, followed by a point of white pepper.

Finish

Medium and soft. The grain sweetness slides away slowly and leaves a clean, almost milky impression behind.

Specifications

Name: Puffing Billy Steam Vodka
Distillery: The Borders Distillery
Region/Country: Hawick, Scottish Borders, Scotland
Type: Scottish Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Pot distilled from malted barley and redistilled in a Carterhead still, steamed through charcoal, unfiltered
EAN no.: 5060395417246
Serving suggestion: Neat over ice, in an Espresso Martini where the creamy texture carries the coffee, or in a mule with apple juice and ginger beer.

Flavour profile

Creamy · Malted · Tropical fruit · Unfiltered

Did you know?

The Borders Distillery occupies the town's nineteenth-century electricity works and was the first malt whisky distillery in the Scottish Borders for almost two hundred years. The region had not had a single one since 1837.

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Just north of Oristano lies Zeddiani, a village on the flat west coast of Sardinia. The Carta family have worked with wine here since the 1950s. The vodka is a late chapter in a story that began with an entirely different glass.

Expert description

Silvio Carta Vodka is an Italian Vodka from Silvio Carta in Zeddiani on Sardinia, bottled at 40%.

The company was founded by Silvio Carta himself in the early 1950s in Baratili San Pietro in the province of Oristano, and the starting point was Vernaccia di Oristano — the oxidative white wine that is the great classic of the island. Only at the end of the 1970s did Silvio and his son Elio build a distillery alongside the winemaking.

That distillery has since grown into one of the most respected on Sardinia. The house is known above all for mirto, the dark red myrtle berry liqueur, and for gin, vermouth and amaro made from the herbs of the island. The vodka is the quiet one in the company: full and complex, yet round and soft with a clear mark of dried fruit.

Tasting notes

Nose

Discreet and warm. Dried figs and raisins sit below the surface alongside a pale grain note.

Palate

Round and full with a sweetness that leans towards dried fruit. The alcohol carries without stabbing.

Finish

Medium and soft. The fruit sweetness falls away slowly and leaves something nutty and dry.

Specifications

Name: Silvio Carta Vodka
Producer: Silvio Carta
Region/Country: Zeddiani, Sardinia, Italy
Type: Italian Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Serving suggestion: Neat and lightly chilled in a tulip glass, or in a Vodka Martini where the fruit notes get room.

Flavour profile

Round · Full · Dried fruit · Soft

Did you know?

Silvio Carta have also turned their hand to whisky made on Sardinia. It remains a rarity on the island, where the distilling tradition otherwise revolves around myrtle berries, herbs and wine.

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Behind most bars in the world stands a row of bottles marked Bols. They are usually brightly coloured, sweet and full of liqueur. This one is the sober member of the family — the clear bottle that is not meant to taste of anything in particular, only to do its job.

Expert description

Bols Classic is a Dutch Vodka from Lucas Bols in Amsterdam, distilled four times from 100% grain and bottled at 37.5%.

Lucas Bols has been around since 1575 and ranks among the oldest spirits brands of all. The house grew large on genever and on a liqueur range that still fills shelves in bars worldwide, and all that experience in hitting the same flavour every single time sits behind the clear bottle too.

The vodka is made solely from grain and distilled four times. The aim is not to build character but to remove whatever gets in the way: fusel oils, harshness and the heavy notes that linger. What is left is a spirit mild enough to drink cold and neutral enough to vanish into a drink without fighting the other ingredients.

The 37.5% is no accident. It is the lower limit the EU allows for a spirit to be called vodka at all, and the lower strength makes the bottle friendlier in long drinks, where alcohol otherwise takes over quickly.

Tasting notes

Nose

Discreet and neutral. There is a trace of pale grain and a distant citrus note, but nothing steps clearly forward.

Palate

Soft and light in body, with a suggestion of sweetness midway. It is smooth rather than full and meets no resistance along the way.

Finish

Short and clean. It closes without heat and without bitterness.

Specifications

Name: Bols Classic
Producer: Lucas Bols
Region/Country: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Type: Dutch Vodka
ABV: 37.5%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Four times distilled from 100% grain
EAN no.: 8716000968906
Serving suggestion: Ice cold in a small glass, or as the base of a Screwdriver or Moscow Mule.

Flavour profile

Neutral · Soft · Light · Mild

Did you know?

Lucas Bols ran the house for more than 400 years before vodka joined the range. The clear bottle first went to market in 1989 — long after genever, kummel and half a hundred liqueurs had found their place.

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In Ellon, north of Aberdeen, stands a brewery that one day decided to build a distillery next door. Malt, yeast and beer were already in the building, so the question was never what they would distil. It was how far they could push it.

Expert description

BrewDog Rogue Wave is a Scottish Vodka made from Single Malt produced at the brewery itself, batch distilled and bottled at 40%.

The ingredient list is short and unusual: malted barley, malted wheat, ale, yeast and water. The vodka begins life as a fermentation closer to a beer than to an industrial grain mash, and that is the whole difference. Sugar, esters and malt are present from the start, and some of it survives the journey through distillation.

Serious money went into the equipment. Vapour passes through the world's first triple bubble copper pot still and then meets a 19 metre rectification column, with the process stretching across seven days. That sounds like a recipe for stripping out all character, but the counterweight is that the spirit is filtered only once. The distillery says it should keep its soul.

You can taste that in the glass. Rogue Wave is clean and crisp without being empty, and a streak of icing sugar and vanilla sits under the surface, which is the malt putting its head up. If you need a vodka that can carry an Espresso Martini without vanishing beneath the coffee, this is a sensible place to look.

Tasting notes

Nose

Crisp and clean with a sweet malt breath. Icing sugar and a trace of vanilla sit on top, with nothing sharp behind.

Palate

Soft attack with clear grain sweetness from the malt. Halfway through it turns dry and a light cereal tone appears, a reminder of where it started.

Finish

Clean and medium long. The sweetness drops away, leaving a dry malted tone and a little warmth.

Specifications

Name: BrewDog Rogue Wave
Distillery: BrewDog Distilling Company
Region/Country: Ellon, Scotland
Type: Scottish Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Batch distilled from Single Malt in a triple bubble copper pot still and a 19 metre rectification column, filtered once
Serving suggestion: Cool and neat in a small glass, or in an Espresso Martini where the malt meets the coffee.

Flavour profile

Malted · Crisp · Sweetish · Dry

Did you know?

BrewDog was started in 2007 by two men and a dog. James Watt and Martin Dickie hand bottled the first batches in Fraserburgh, and the dog was called Bracken. Fourteen years later the company had a distillery housing the world's first triple bubble copper pot still.

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The neck is frosted, as though the bottle had just come out of the freezer. That is no accident. The whole elit design points back at the one step that separates it from the rest of the Stolichnaya family: the cold.

Expert description

Elit Vodka is a Latvian Vodka from Stoli Group, distilled from wheat and bottled at 40%.

The foundation is an alpha grade spirit. That is not a marketing word but an official classification with limits on aldehydes, fusel oils and methanol that sit far above what ordinary neutral alcohol has to meet. The wheat is distilled three times before the spirit is even allowed to claim the label.

It is then cut with artesian water from a borehole roughly 200 metres beneath Latvijas Balzams in Riga, and after that comes the step everything else is built around. The vodka is chilled to minus 18 degrees and drawn at a crawl through ion charged filters. The cold makes the heavier compounds sluggish enough to be caught, and the spirit then rests before bottling.

What you get out of it shows most clearly when the glass is cold. There is no sharp edge, no burn in the nose and a mouthfeel that verges on oily. In return, this is not a vodka with a great deal to say aromatically — the point is purity and texture rather than a long list of notes.

Tasting notes

Nose

Very restrained. A pale grain character, a little white bread and a hint of fresh almond if you give it time.

Palate

Soft and full with an oily sensation across the tongue. Sweetness is low, and a light mineral tone runs underneath it all.

Finish

Short, clean and cool. Nothing lingers, and that is exactly the intention.

Specifications

Name: Elit Vodka
Producer: Stoli Group
Region/Country: Riga, Latvia
Type: Latvian Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Triple distilled and freeze filtered at minus 18 degrees
Serving suggestion: Straight from the freezer into a cool glass, or as the base of a Vodka Martini without too much vermouth.

Flavour profile

Clean · Oily · Neutral · Cool

Did you know?

The name is deliberately written with a lower case letter. The house calls it elit rather than Elit, and the small e runs across the label, the box and every piece of material — a detail that regularly makes people assume a typing error has crept in.

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Strawberry and white chocolate is a pairing pastry chefs have lived off for generations. Mozart has poured it into a bottle in Salzburg, and the result is pink, creamy and considerably lighter than the description promises.

Expert description

Mozart Strawberry Chocolate is an Austrian White Chocolate Liqueur with strawberry from Mozart Distillerie in Salzburg, made with cocoa butter, cream and natural strawberry aroma and bottled at 15%.

The house has made chocolate liqueur and almost nothing else since 1954, and the strawberry edition is the most fruit-driven bottle in the range. The colour is a light strawberry pink and the texture is creamy without being heavy, which the producer describes as a light body.

The strawberry has been added to the white chocolate liqueur rather than the other way round. Cocoa butter and cream still form the floor, while the vanilla ties fruit and chocolate together. That combination is why it carries a dessert cocktail without needing either syrup or fruit puree.

The liqueur contains milk products. It has taken gold at the DLG International Award 2022, silver at the World Spirits Award 2022 and bronze at the IWSC 2022.

Tasting notes

Nose

Strawberry first, ripe fruit rather than tart. Behind it sit cocoa butter and a soft breath of vanilla.

Palate

Creamy without being thick. White chocolate lays the floor, the strawberry rests on top, and the vanilla holds the two together. The sweetness is obvious but never turns artificial.

Finish

Medium and milky. The fruit lets go first, and the cocoa butter is left standing alone with a little vanilla.

Specifications

Name: Mozart Strawberry Chocolate
Producer: Mozart Distillerie
Region/Country: Salzburg, Austria
Type: Austrian White Chocolate Liqueur with strawberry
ABV: 15%
Size: 50 CL
EAN no.: 9013100003490
Serving suggestion: Over vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries, or stirred into warm milk as a pink hot chocolate.

Flavour profile

Strawberry · White chocolate · Vanilla · Creamy

Did you know?

Mozart calls its own cocktails choctails and has sorted the recipes into categories such as freakshakes and hot choctails. The strawberry bottle turns up in a rose-coloured hot chocolate and in a chocolate muffin.

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White chocolate is not really chocolate at all. There is no cocoa mass in it, only cocoa butter, milk and sugar. Mozart White Chocolate is that argument poured into a bottle: milky white, soft, and with vanilla calling the shots.

Expert description

Mozart White Chocolate is an Austrian White Chocolate Liqueur from Mozart Distillerie in Salzburg, made with cocoa butter, cream and Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar, and bottled at 15%.

It is the lightest bottle in the house, in colour and in weight. The liquid is milky white and semi-fluid, so lighter than a classic cream liqueur, and the strength sits a couple of degrees below the coffee and dark editions. That makes it easier to drink in quantity where the others turn filling.

Vanilla leads, caramel follows right behind, and the cocoa butter supplies the richness that holds everything together. The producer describes the taste as liquid white chocolate with a hint of spirit, which is fair enough: you notice the alcohol, but it never cuts.

The liqueur is gluten-free and contains dairy. It is made entirely from natural ingredients and has taken gold at the World Spirits Award 2022, the London Spirits Competition 2022 and the DLG International Award the same year.

Tasting notes

Nose

Vanilla straight away, sweet and reminiscent of baking. Underneath sit warm milk and a fatty, almost buttery impression from the cocoa butter.

Palate

Light and milky in the mouth rather than thick. Vanilla and caramel share the middle, and there is a soft sweetness closer to dessert than to spirit. The alcohol only shows up at the end.

Finish

Short to medium and buttery. The sweetness fades slowly, leaving a thin film of cocoa butter across the tongue.

Specifications

Name: Mozart White Chocolate
Producer: Mozart Distillerie
Region/Country: Salzburg, Austria
Type: Austrian White Chocolate Liqueur
ABV: 15%
Size: 50 CL
EAN no.: 9013100053303
Serving suggestion: Stirred into hot chocolate on a winter evening, or poured over fresh raspberries with vanilla ice cream.

Flavour profile

Vanilla · Cocoa butter · Milky · Caramel

Did you know?

Mozart bottles are low, round and wrapped in foil, and the shape is not only decoration. It was chosen because the bottles can be stacked two deep on a shop shelf, doubling what the customer sees without taking up any more space.

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Five centilitres is just enough to settle an argument. Line up three Danish vodkas side by side, pour a little into each glass, and let the wheat, the gold and the freezer speak for themselves.

Expert description

ELG Vodka is a Danish Vodka from Stone Grange near Fredensborg, distilled from wheat and bottled at 40% in a 5 cl miniature.

The miniature is not a different recipe but the same vodka in a format that lets you take less. The content is wheat based, and as in the full bottle the alcohol vapour has passed through two filters of 24 carat gold during the final distillation.

For a tasting, the small format is the most useful thing there is. Five centilitres covers two small glasses, and with two or three bottles on the table you can weigh Danish wheat vodka against Polish rye and English potato vodka without opening anything you then have to finish.

Then there is everything else a small bottle can do. It takes up no room in hand luggage, it fits an advent calendar or a hamper, and it makes an easy gift for someone who likes Danish craft without necessarily collecting bottles.

Tasting notes

Nose

Discreet and pale, with a suggestion of bread crust and a cool, faintly sweet tone.

Palate

Silky and light. The sweetness is restrained and settles evenly across the tongue without burning anywhere.

Finish

Short and dry. It disappears tidily and leaves only a faint warmth in the throat.

Specifications

Name: ELG Vodka
Distillery: Stone Grange
Region/Country: Fredensborg, Denmark
Type: Danish Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 5 CL
EAN no.: 5712510600025
Serving suggestion: Chill the bottle and pour it into two small glasses, ideally for a comparison with another vodka.

Flavour profile

Silky · Light · Clean · Discreet

Did you know?

ELG Vodka is made in batches of 625 bottles. That is an unusually precise figure to publish, and it says something about the scale involved — the miniature in your hand comes out of a run like that too.

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Most distilleries filter through charcoal, sand or ceramic. Here the alcohol vapour passes through gold. Not as decoration on the label, but as a physical part of the final distillation, up in North Zealand a stone's throw from Fredensborg.

Expert description

ELG Vodka is a Danish Vodka from Stone Grange near Fredensborg, distilled from wheat and bottled at 40%.

Behind the ELG name stands Henrik Elsner, a trained bio-organic chemist who built the Stone Grange distillery from 2009 onwards. The name sounds English, but neither the address nor the production is: everything happens on Fredensborgvej, and the house also makes gin, aquavit, absinthe, vermouth and liqueur.

The vodka is wheat based and run on a German hand-built copper column still. During the final distillation the alcohol vapour is led through two specially developed filters of 24 carat gold. The point is not luxury but chemistry: gold is close to chemically inert and gives up neither metallic flavour nor oxidation products to the spirit, the way less noble metals can.

The result is a vodka that does not try to be anonymous. The wheat is allowed to lay down a mild grain sweetness that holds all the way across the mouth, and none of the sharp edges are there that otherwise make people drown vodka in juice. It stands up to a small glass on its own.

Tasting notes

Nose

Pale and clean. A light sweetness from the wheat sits there with a hint of lemon peel, without any kind of harshness.

Palate

Round and smooth with an obvious softness from the outset. Grain sweetness fills the middle, and only right at the end does a small lift of white pepper arrive.

Finish

Short, dry and clean. The sweetness lets go quickly and leaves no bitterness behind.

Specifications

Name: ELG Vodka
Distillery: Stone Grange
Region/Country: Fredensborg, Denmark
Type: Danish Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Copper column, filtered through two filters of 24 carat gold
Serving suggestion: Ice cold in a small glass, or as the base of a Bloody Mary where the grain sweetness can carry the spices.

Flavour profile

Soft · Clean · Lightly grain-sweet · Round

Did you know?

Stone Grange also makes brandy and marc from grapes off the distillery's own vineyards. Danish vineyards rarely turn up in the same sentence as distilled spirits, yet here they end up in the bottle.

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In Bardstown, Kentucky, almost everything is about bourbon. Limestone below the ground, corn fields above it, and a mashing method handed down since the 1800s. Now and then the spirit does not go into an oak barrel but becomes vodka instead. Poppins is one of those.

Expert description

Poppins Family Original Sour Mash Vodka is an American Vodka from Willett Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky, distilled from corn and rye in small batches and bottled at 46.2%.

Sour mash is the single most important trick in the bourbon world, and it is rare to meet it in a vodka. The method takes a portion of the spent, acidic mash from the previous distillation and stirs it into the new one. The acidity keeps unwanted bacteria down, the yeast gets better working conditions, and every batch carries a little of the one before. It is continuity turned into technique.

The bottling strength of 46.2% is the other clear decision. Most vodkas stop at 40%, and the extra degrees register immediately: more weight, more warmth and a plainer grain character from the corn and the rye. This is not a vodka that vanishes inside a drink.

Tasting notes

Nose

Sweet grain and a touch of vanilla. Behind it sits a dry rye spice of the kind you meet in young whiskey.

Palate

Full and broad. Corn sweetness leads, then a peppery rye note, and the alcohol gives a clear shove halfway through.

Finish

Long and dry. The warmth holds while the sweetness falls away, leaving the spice standing on its own.

Specifications

Name: Poppins Family Original Sour Mash Vodka
Distillery: Willett Distillery
Region/Country: Bardstown, Kentucky, USA
Type: American Vodka
ABV: 46.2%
Size: 75 CL
Distillation method: Sour mash, small batch
EAN no.: 680203010169
Serving suggestion: As a Screwdriver with freshly squeezed orange, or cold in a small glass alongside smoked food.

Flavour profile

Full · Grain sweet · Spicy · Powerful

Did you know?

Willett was founded in 1936 on the family farm in Bardstown, shortly after Prohibition was lifted. The distillery is still family owned, and very few bourbon houses in Kentucky can say the same.

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The most recognisable bottle in the spirits world, shrunk to something that fits a coat pocket. The same curved shoulder, the same clear glass, the same lettering printed straight onto the bottle. Simply in pocket format.

Expert description

Absolut is a Swedish Vodka made from winter wheat grown at Åhus and bottled at 40% in a 5 cl bottle.

Every single drop of Absolut comes from the same place. The wheat is grown around Åhus in southern Sweden, sown in autumn and harvested the following year, and the water is drawn from a deep local well. Distillation runs continuously rather than in batches, a method Lars Olsson Smith developed in the nineteenth century and which earned him the nickname Brännvinskungen, the vodka king.

He launched Absolut Rent Brännvin in 1879. A hundred years later, in 1979, the brand was relaunched internationally in the bottle we know today — drawn from an old Swedish apothecary flask, without a paper label and with the text printed directly into the glass. The miniature is that same bottle in small format.

Tasting notes

Nose

Clean and lightly bready. There is a fine grain character and otherwise very little to hold on to, which is the intention.

Palate

Soft and dry with a discreet grain sweetness. The alcohol registers as warmth rather than as sharpness.

Finish

Short and clean. It releases quickly and leaves no bitterness behind.

Specifications

Name: Absolut
Distillery: Absolut
Region/Country: Åhus, Sweden
Type: Swedish Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 5 CL
Distillation method: Continuous distillation
EAN no.: 7312040017508
Serving suggestion: Ice cold as a shot, or as the base of a single Vodka Tonic with lemon.

Flavour profile

Clean · Dry · Lightly grain sweet · Neutral

Did you know?

Lars Olsson Smith was known as Brännvinskungen, the vodka king. He took on the Stockholm spirits monopoly by selling his brännvin from Reimersholme, outside the city customs line, and ferried people out there so they could buy around the system. That business laid the foundation for Absolut.

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The bedrock under Bornholm is older than most of Europe. It has been lying there for two billion years, and now a piece of it sits down in the tank alongside the vodka. It sounds like a gimmick. It is not quite that.

Expert description

Vodka Bornholm is a Danish Vodka from Bornholm Spirits, made from organic wheat and bottled at 40%.

After distillation the vodka is left to rest with Bornholm granite for four to six months. The stone releases minerals into the liquid, and the result is a softer, rounder vodka where the alcoholic edge has stepped back. The granite comes from Rønne and is more than two billion years old.

The wheat is organic, and the bottle is a champagne bottle with a wooden cap that can be put back on. It is a piece of packaging theatre, but a practical one: pour a single glass and the rest of the bottle does not have to stand there with a loose stopper in the neck.

Bornholm Spirits sits in Nexø on the east coast of the island and has been making the vodka since late 2018. It is also known as Smagen af Vodka Bornholm, and it is built as much for drinking neat as for going into a drink.

Tasting notes

Nose

Clean and light. Mild grain sweetness, a hint of white bread and something cool and mineral behind it.

Palate

Soft and round from the start. The wheat gives a muted sweetness, and no sharp alcoholic heat arrives to interrupt it.

Finish

Short and clean with a mineral lift. The sweetness falls away quietly without leaving bitterness.

Specifications

Name: Vodka Bornholm
Distillery: Bornholm Spirits
Region/Country: Nexø, Bornholm, Denmark
Type: Danish Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
EAN no.: 5744000832005
Serving suggestion: Ice cold in a small glass, or in a Moscow Mule where the softness suits the ginger.

Flavour profile

Soft · Mineral · Clean · Lightly grain-sweet

Did you know?

Bornholm Spirits began in 2016 as a group of friends who wanted to make the strongest chilli schnapps in Denmark. In 2021 they bought Den Bornholmske Spritfabrik, and the name changed from Snaps Bornholm to Bornholm Spirits.

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In Norse mythology Fenrir the wolf lies bound until the world ends. In Kolding the name has landed on a bottle. Behind it stand two hand-beaten copper pot stills of 500 litres and a distillery that has never been in a hurry to grow large.

Expert description

Trolden Fenris Vodka is a Danish Vodka from Trolden in Kolding, triple distilled in pot stills and bottled at 37.5%.

Trolden started as a brewery in Kolding in 2005 and let the distillery follow later. There is no production line and no off-the-shelf answers; the stills are small enough for one person to watch a whole run. That naturally caps how much can leave the building, but that is also the entire point.

Choosing a pot still over a column is what decides how Fenris tastes. A column scrubs the spirit again and again until little more than alcohol and water remains. A pot still lets more of the raw material come across. So there is still malted sweetness and a lightly oily weight in the glass, where many other vodkas have been polished flat.

Tasting notes

Nose

Mild and held back. A soft sweetness with something plum-like about it, and a dry grain note behind.

Palate

Round and almost oily in the mouth. Malted sweetness fills the middle before a light peppery warmth arrives.

Finish

Short to medium. The sweetness pulls away and a dry, grainy trace is left behind.

Specifications

Name: Trolden Fenris Vodka
Distillery: Trolden
Region/Country: Kolding, Denmark
Type: Danish Vodka
ABV: 37.5%
Size: 50 CL
Distillation method: Triple distilled in pot stills
EAN no.: 5704021010059
Serving suggestion: Fridge cold in a small glass, or in a Vodka Martini where the malt sweetness gets room to spread.

Flavour profile

Round · Malty · Oily · Mild

Did you know?

Fenris also exists in a cocoa and orange version. Same spirit, same stills, but a flavouring that pulls the vodka towards the dessert glass rather than the freezer.

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Number 29 in the periodic table is copper. That is not a flourish invented for a label but the single thing this whole vodka rests on: the metal in the still, the spiral in the bottle, and the reason the spirit needs no filtration afterwards.

Expert description

Element 29 Vodka Copper Edition is an English Vodka from Element 29, distilled from English wheat in a copper pot still and bottled at 40%.

The still has a name and an age. She is called Angela, was hand-hammered by John Dore & Co in their London workshops in 1903, and has therefore passed a hundred years of service. A pot still of that kind distils more slowly than a modern column, but in far closer contact with the metal.

And that is the point. Copper conducts heat evenly and at the same time binds the sulphur compounds that would otherwise lay a note of struck match and boiled vegetables into the spirit. Remove them on the way through and there is nothing left afterwards to cover up, so the house neither filters nor adds flavouring.

The raw materials are English wheat and spring water from Sussex. The Copper Edition bottle drops a copper spiral into the glass itself as a nod to the still — decoration rather than part of the process, but it makes the bottle hard to miss on a shelf.

Tasting notes

Nose

Fresh and clear with a distinct lift of pepper. Behind it sits a trace of anise and a dry grain note.

Palate

Full and broad with the natural sweetness of wheat through the middle. A fine herbal thread runs across it, which keeps it from turning round and dull.

Finish

Clean and dry, with the pepper returning briefly right at the end.

Specifications

Name: Element 29 Vodka Copper Edition
Producer: Element 29
Region/Country: England
Type: English Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Distilled in a copper pot still, neither filtered nor flavoured
Edition: Copper Edition
Serving suggestion: Ice cold in a small glass, or in a Vodka Martini where the pepper gets room.

Flavour profile

Peppery · Dry · Grain-sweet · Herbal

Did you know?

John Dore & Co was founded in London in 1835 by the Irishman Aeneas Coffey and is regarded as the oldest distillery engineering business in the world. That is the same Coffey who gave his name to the Coffey still — the basic shape of virtually all continuous distillation since.

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Tell someone you have vodka made from milk and you usually get a raised eyebrow. Five centilitres is exactly what it takes to end the argument — there is enough in the bottle for everyone round the table to check for themselves.

Expert description

Black Cow Pure Milk Vodka is an English Vodka from Black Cow in West Dorset, distilled from the whey of milk and bottled at 40% in a 5 cl miniature.

The content is the same as in the full bottle: whey from the farm's milk is fermented, distilled and bottled by hand in Dorset. Only the volume differs, and volume is precisely what makes the small format so useful when somebody needs convincing.

The miniature belongs in a tasting line-up of unusual raw materials. Set it against a vodka made from potatoes, one from grapes and one from grain, and the difference in mouthfeel becomes something you can point at rather than read about. The milk lays down a weight none of the others carry.

As a gift it is easy to give. Small enough for a gift bag or an advent calendar, and it comes with a story the recipient has not heard before. It also takes up no room in a suitcase if the bottle has to travel to someone at the other end of the country.

Tasting notes

Nose

Mild and lightly sweet, with a trace of condensed milk and a cool undertone.

Palate

Thick and velvety in the mouth. The sweetness is subdued, and there is no burn, only an even, round fullness.

Finish

Soft and short. It slips away without bitterness and leaves a faint dryness.

Specifications

Name: Black Cow Pure Milk Vodka
Producer: Black Cow
Region/Country: West Dorset, England
Type: English Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 5 CL
EAN no.: 5060323760086
Serving suggestion: Chill the bottle and pour it neat into two small glasses, or use it for a single Espresso Martini.

Flavour profile

Velvety · Mild · Round · Lightly sweet

Did you know?

The curds from the same milk become cheese. The farm makes both cheese and vodka out of every litre it brings in, which means there is effectively nothing left over once both are finished.

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On a farm in West Dorset the cows stand out on grass, the milk comes in, and the cheese gets made as it always has. What used to run down the drain afterwards now ends up in a bottle. That is the whole story behind Black Cow — and it is every bit as odd as it sounds.

Expert description

Black Cow Pure Milk Vodka is an English Vodka from Black Cow in West Dorset, distilled from whey off grass-grazed cows' milk and bottled at 40%.

The idea turned up in 2011 over a few drinks between two neighbours, one of whom, Jason Barber, is a fifth-generation dairy farmer. A year later the first bottle was ready, and Black Cow became the world's first vodka made purely from milk.

The method follows the dairy. Milk is separated into curds and whey; the curds go to cheese, while the whey — usually a leftover — is set to ferment with a yeast developed specifically to turn milk sugar into alcohol. The resulting "milk beer" is distilled into a neutral spirit, which is then blended by the house's own process, triple filtered and bottled by hand on the farm.

The raw material shows. Lactose ferments differently from the starch in grain or potatoes, and the trace compounds left after distillation pull towards something soft and lightly creamy rather than towards grain sweetness or peppery bite. This is not a vodka that tastes of milk, but nor is it a vodka that tastes like all the others.

Tasting notes

Nose

Soft and faintly sweet, with an impression of whipped cream and a small fresh citrus edge.

Palate

Full and smooth with a clear creaminess that settles like a film across the tongue. The sweetness is mild and carries no sharp edge.

Finish

Clean and soft, medium in length. The creaminess lets go slowly, and a light mineral dryness arrives at the close.

Specifications

Name: Black Cow Pure Milk Vodka
Producer: Black Cow
Region/Country: West Dorset, England
Type: English Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Distilled from fermented whey, triple filtered
EAN no.: 5060323760000
Serving suggestion: Neat and properly cold in a small glass, or as the base of an Espresso Martini where the creaminess has a part to play.

Flavour profile

Creamy · Soft · Mild · Round

Did you know?

The herd numbers around 250 cows grazing the fields around the distillery, and every single bottle is filled by hand on the farm itself. It is less than a mile from Jason Barber's dairy to the place where the vodka is made.

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