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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Treptow is the kind of Berlin district where old industrial buildings stand shoulder to shoulder with workshops and galleries. In 2013 the first distillery in a family that has since spread across several continents opened here. Everything began in Berlin.

Expert description

Our Vodka By Berlin is a German Vodka from Our/Berlin in Treptow, bottled at 37.5%.

Our/Berlin was the prototype. When the idea of a global brand with local distilleries had to be tried out in the real world, Berlin was picked as the first city, and the whole model — micro distillery in the city centre, local partners, local ingredients and the same recipe everywhere — was tested here before London, Detroit and the rest followed.

The vodka is made from German wheat and water drawn from the ground in Treptow. The spirit is blended and hand bottled on site, and the labels go onto the bottles in the same room the production stands in. It is as much craft as manufacturing.

The site is run by Jon and Pauline, who came to the project from PR and fashion, and that has shaped where the brand ended up. Our/Berlin has become a regular in the city's fashion, music and lifestyle circles and ranks among the best selling vodkas in Berlin's airports.

Tasting notes

Nose

Soft wheat with a touch of white bread and a suggestion of anise. The aroma is low and straightforward.

Palate

Round and mild with clear grain sweetness. There is little bite, but a lightly saline note turns up towards the end.

Finish

Short and soft. The sweetness dries out slowly and only a faint warmth remains.

Specifications

Name: Our Vodka By Berlin
Distillery: Our/Berlin
Region/Country: Treptow, Berlin, Germany
Type: German Vodka
ABV: 37.5%
Size: 35 CL
Serving suggestion: Ice cold as a shot beside a beer, or in a Moscow Mule where the grain sweetness meets the ginger.

Flavour profile

Soft · Grain sweet · Mild · Lightly saline

Did you know?

Our/Vodka began as a secret project. The idea was developed in Stockholm by Åsa Caap together with colleagues from the agency Great Works, and they worked on it after hours and from their own homes for two years before Pernod Ricard approved a pilot in Berlin.

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Bagley Street sits in the part of Detroit where the brick facades carry murals and half the shopfronts have stood empty for years. Number 2545 became a distillery. Not as an investment, but as an argument that the neighbourhood was worth staying in.

Expert description

Our Vodka By Detroit is an American Vodka from Our/Detroit on Bagley Street, bottled at 40%.

Detroit came second in the line. After Berlin had shown that a micro distillery could work in the middle of a large city, Our/Detroit opened in August 2014 as the first outside Europe. The model came with it: the same recipe as the rest of the family, ingredients sourced as close by as possible, and a team of local partners with a free hand to run the brand the way they felt the city deserved.

The team behind it was local and women led, with Kate Bordine among the partners, and they chose to use the distillery as more than a production site. Mural competitions and neighbourhood events were held there, and sales were tied to the work of bringing life back to the surrounding streets.

The vodka itself is slightly stronger than its sister bottles from London and Berlin. The 40 percent gives more body and a clearer warmth, which makes it sturdier in a drink and more direct when it is served ice cold.

Tasting notes

Nose

Neutral with a pale grain character and a hint of green peel. The alcohol reads as a cool breath rather than a sting.

Palate

Firm and clean with moderate sweetness. The middle is dry, and a peppered warmth settles across the tongue.

Finish

Medium and dry. The warmth holds for a moment before everything withdraws.

Specifications

Name: Our Vodka By Detroit
Distillery: Our/Detroit
Region/Country: Detroit, Michigan, USA
Type: American Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 37.5 CL
EAN no.: 835229008816
Serving suggestion: In a Bloody Mary with plenty of horseradish, or ice cold in a shot glass alongside a burger.

Flavour profile

Dry · Firm · Peppered · Clean

Did you know?

Our/Detroit was run by a women led team — a rarity in American distilling, where women have long been heavily underrepresented among owners and production managers.

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Under the railway arches at Hackney Downs the trains pass overhead every few minutes. Beneath them stands a distillery about the size of a workshop, filling vodka into bottles that look like something a milkman left on the step.

Expert description

Our Vodka By London is an English Vodka from Our/London in Hackney, bottled at 37.5%.

Our/Vodka rests on a simple idea: one global brand, but a distillery in every city, run by people who live there. The recipe is the same everywhere, while the ingredients are sourced as close by as possible and each city gets its own name on the bottle. The distilleries are small enough to sit inside the city rather than out in a field.

The London site opened in November 2015 and is run by Clive Watson, who is behind several London restaurants including Blixen, and Neil Chivers, operations director at the PR agency LD Communications with bands such as the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd on the client list. The space is production, tasting room and event venue in one.

The bottle is the same in every city: a low, broad shape with a screw cap that borrows its look from an old fashioned milk bottle. The label is pure typography and the city name. There is no decoration to hide behind, which suits a distillery under a railway bridge rather well.

Tasting notes

Nose

Clean and lightly grainy with a dry citrus tone. Something bakery like sits behind it, rather like a bowl of wheat flour.

Palate

Lighter in body than the 40 percent vodkas. Mild sweetness in the middle, after which a dry, almost chalky sensation takes over.

Finish

Short and clean with a small prick of pepper. It disappears quickly and leaves the mouth dry.

Specifications

Name: Our Vodka By London
Distillery: Our/London
Region/Country: Hackney, London, England
Type: English Vodka
ABV: 37.5%
Size: 35 CL
Serving suggestion: In a Vodka Tonic with cucumber and lemon peel, where the lower strength keeps the drink easy going.

Flavour profile

Dry · Light · Grainy · Citrus

Did you know?

The grain spirit for Our/London does not come from London but from a site just outside Birmingham. It was the closest place the team could find that could deliver the same purity every time — and they chose to be open about it rather than call everything local.

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Ballard was a fishing harbour long before it turned into a district of coffee bars and design studios. The rain still falls at the same grey pace, and the wheat still comes from the hills east of the city. That is what ends up in the bottle.

Expert description

Our Vodka By Seattle is an American Vodka from Our/Seattle in Ballard, bottled at 40%.

Seattle was the third in the family. The distillery opened in April 2015 on Market Street in the middle of Ballard, after Berlin and Detroit had shown that a distillery can sit in a shopfront and still make serious spirits. Behind the site stand Nin Truong, Christa Thomas and Stephen Pleadwell — the first two are designers and run the studio WKND in the city.

The raw material is winter wheat from the Palouse, the rolling farming region in eastern Washington where the fields run like dunes and have been worked for over a century. The wheat gives a soft spirit, which the team blends and hand bottles in Ballard following the same recipe every Our/Vodka city shares.

Bottling at 40 percent makes it a little firmer than the European releases. That suits the local drinking culture, where vodka ends up in a brunch time Bloody Mary as readily as in an evening shot glass.

Tasting notes

Nose

Clean wheat with a coolly sweet note reminiscent of fresh cut straw. A small breath of vanilla sits behind it.

Palate

Soft on entry and quickly dry. The grain fills the middle without turning sweet, and a fine mineral stripe runs through.

Finish

Clean and medium. It closes dry with a trace of white pepper.

Specifications

Name: Our Vodka By Seattle
Distillery: Our/Seattle
Region/Country: Ballard, Seattle, Washington, USA
Type: American Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 37.5 CL
EAN no.: 835229008830
Serving suggestion: In a Vodka Gimlet with fresh lime juice, or cold and neat alongside smoked salmon.

Flavour profile

Dry · Wheat soft · Mineral · Clean

Did you know?

The Palouse, where the wheat comes from, is one of the most productive grain regions in the United States. Its hills were formed by wind blown dust over thousands of years, and the soil runs so deep that the fields can be farmed without irrigation — unusual in an area with so little rainfall.

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Some bottles hide on the shelf. This one does the opposite. An alien head with two black eyes looking back at you, and inside it a corn vodka filtered through stone older than the Earth itself.

Please note: this is not the Chrome edition. The bottle is clear glass with black eyes.

Expert description

OuterSpace Vodka is an American Vodka distilled five times from corn and bottled at 40%.

The idea came from Jim Denoon, who works with the design and development of glass packaging for a living. It shows. The bottle is shaped as an alien head and is at least as much shelf theatre as it is packaging. Behind the gimmick sits a properly made vodka: the corn comes from Iowa, the spirit runs through five distillations, and it is finally filtered through meteorite material dated at over four billion years. The vodka is gluten free.

Five distillations do something to the texture. It turns round and creamy rather than sharp, and the sweetness from the corn gets room to fill the middle before drying out again towards the end.

Tasting notes

Nose

Almost neutral on the first pass. Give it a moment and a light vanilla sweetness appears, along with something green, close to mint leaf.

Palate

Creamy and round. Corn sweetness sits clearly in the middle, soft and nearly milky, until a peppery warmth cuts through it.

Finish

The sweetness disappears faster than expected and leaves something dry and spiced. The warmth stays around far longer.

Specifications

Name: OuterSpace Vodka
Distillery: OuterSpace
Region/Country: Iowa, USA
Type: American Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Five times distilled
EAN no.: 3760175132070
Serving suggestion: Ice cold as a shot, or in an Espresso Martini where the creamy texture carries the coffee.

Flavour profile

Soft · Creamy · Lightly sweet · Spiced finish

Did you know?

The meteorites the vodka is filtered through are dated at over four billion years. That makes them older than the grain, the water and the glass in the bottle, and older than practically the entire present surface of the Earth.

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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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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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96% is not a number anyone picks for comfort. It is the strength an ordinary distillation column can actually reach, and it belongs in one place in the kitchen: with whoever needs the last of what a root, a bark or a lump of resin has to give.

Please note: This item does not come in a glass bottle but in a square 1 litre plastic jerrycan (UN approved) with a 32 mm cap. The content has a very high alcohol strength, is readily flammable and must be kept away from children and open flames.

Expert description

Radius Tinktur Vodka Økologisk 96% is an Organic Danish Vodka from Radius Distillery at Oremandsgaard estate, bottled at 96% in a one litre container.

It is the strongest thing the house makes, and it is meant as an ingredient rather than a drink. Where 60% is a ready-mixed extraction base, 96% is a starting point you assemble yourself: you decide how much water goes in, and with that which compounds come out of the plant.

That matters for everything that does not give up easily. Resins, propolis, vanilla pods, dry roots and bark need a high alcohol share before anything happens at all. In return the recipe has to be followed: too much alcohol can precipitate mucilage and pectin instead of extracting them, and the yield suffers.

The base is organic and distilled clean, so it does not lay its own flavour on top of whatever you are working with. Radius Distillery gathers its raw materials within the shortest possible distance of the still house at Oremandsgaard estate — hence the name — and spends most of the year on gin, aquavit, liqueur and whisky.

Tasting notes

Nose

Piercing and almost colourless in aroma. There is no fusel and nothing sweet, only clean ethanol with a faint mineral trace behind it.

Palate

Cannot be judged undiluted. Brought down to drinking strength with water, it shows a dry, straightforward profile with a faint sweet edge and no rough corners.

Finish

Clean and quick. The heat lets go fast and leaves no off note behind to disturb the herbs.

Specifications

Name: Radius Tinktur Vodka Økologisk
Producer: Radius Distillery
Region/Country: Oremandsgaard, Southern Zealand, Denmark
Type: Organic Danish Vodka
ABV: 96%
Size: 100 CL
EAN no.: 5714474000163
Serving suggestion: Not to be drunk neat. Use it for herbal extraction or dilute it to whatever strength your recipe calls for.

Flavour profile

Neutral · Extremely powerful · Clean · Organic

Did you know?

96% is not a marketing figure but a physical limit. Ethanol and water form an azeotrope at around 96 percent by volume, where vapour and liquid share the same composition. Ordinary distillation cannot climb past that point, however many times the spirit is run through.

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There is no chilled bottle here and no finely moulded stopper. There is a jerrycan, a screw cap and a content chosen for what it can pull out of a handful of dried plants. Radius Tinktur was built for the kitchen table, not the display cabinet.

Please note: This item does not come in a glass bottle but in a square 1 litre plastic jerrycan (UN approved) with a 32 mm cap. The content has a very high alcohol strength and must be kept away from children and open flames.

Expert description

Radius Tinktur Vodka Økologisk 60% is an Organic Danish Vodka from Radius Distillery at Oremandsgaard estate, bottled at 60% in a one litre container.

Radius Distillery sits in the middle of the estate near Præstø in southern Zealand and takes its name from its own working method: raw materials are gathered within the shortest possible radius of the still house. Day to day the house concentrates on gin, aquavit, liqueur and whisky, and the distiller works with the laboratory tape measure in one hand and his nose in the other.

This release is not meant as a sipping vodka. A tincture is an alcohol extraction, and strength decides what comes across. Water pulls out tannins, acids and plant mucilage, while alcohol takes the essential oils, resins and bitter compounds. At 60% you get both at once, which is exactly why so many herbal recipes settle at that level.

The base should keep quiet. It is distilled clean enough that lemon balm tastes of lemon balm rather than of spirit, and the organic certification means no residues travel from the field into the jar. Caraway, sea buckthorn and horsetail are among the plants it is regularly put to work on.

Tasting notes

Nose

Sharp and clear. Behind the alcohol lies a slender sweetness and a mineral trace, but there is no fusel weight.

Palate

Burning undiluted. Bring the strength down with water and a mild grain sweetness unfolds, leaving the mouth dry and smooth rather than oily.

Finish

Short and warm. It clears quickly without leaving an off note, which is the whole point of an extraction base.

Specifications

Name: Radius Tinktur Vodka Økologisk
Producer: Radius Distillery
Region/Country: Oremandsgaard, Southern Zealand, Denmark
Type: Organic Danish Vodka
ABV: 60%
Size: 100 CL
Serving suggestion: Intended as an extraction base for herbs. If it goes in a glass, dilute it heavily with water or ice.

Flavour profile

Neutral · Clean · Powerful · Organic

Did you know?

Oremandsgaard has been farmed organically since 1967. The estate converted long before the word became common in Danish supermarkets, and that is the soil the distillery draws its raw materials from.

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Not many bands have ended up with their own spirits range. Rammstein have a whole series, and the vodka is the most sober of them: wheat, several distillations and a black bottle without a single apology on the label.

Expert description

Rammstein Export Edition Vodka is a German Vodka made from wheat, distilled several times in Germany and bottled at 40%.

The series came out of a collaboration between the band and the Danish spirits house 1423 World Class Spirits, founded in 2008 and built around finding and releasing spirits from across the world. The band members took part in choosing what could carry the name, and beyond the vodka the range covers rum and whiskey among others.

The wheat sets the direction you can taste. Wheat-based vodka usually carries a softer, faintly sweeter character than the rye-based bottles from Poland, and repeated distillation pulls it further towards clean. The result is a vodka built to be mixed, not to be studied for hours.

Tasting notes

Nose

Neutral at first meeting. There is a faint sweet grain note and a touch of citrus, but the nose keeps a low profile.

Palate

Soft and smooth with a mild wheat sweetness. The alcohol reads as a clean, dry warmth without sharp edges.

Finish

Short and dry. The sweetness lets go quickly and only a light peppery impression stays behind.

Specifications

Name: Rammstein Export Edition Vodka
Producer: 1423 World Class Spirits
Region/Country: Germany
Type: German Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Multiple distilled from wheat
Edition: Export Edition
EAN no.: 5712718004359
Serving suggestion: Ice cold as a shot, or in a Moscow Mule where ginger and lime take the lead.

Flavour profile

Clean · Soft · Lightly grain sweet · Dry finish

Did you know?

The bottles are filled by hand in small batches in Berlin. That is also the city where the band came together, so the label points back to the place the whole story started.

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Borgarnes sits on a fjord halfway up the west coast of Iceland, lava fields on one side and the Atlantic on the other. The air is so clean it is hard to describe to anyone who has not stood in it. The distillery here runs on steam from the volcanoes underground and filters its vodka through the stone those same volcanoes spat out.

Expert description

Reyka Small Batch is an Icelandic Vodka from Reyka in Borgarnes, distilled from grain and spring water running through a 4,000 year old lava field, bottled at 40%.

The interesting part of Reyka is the still. The distillery works with a Carter-Head still, a type only a handful of which survive anywhere in the world, and it is packed with copper. The copper strips out sulphur and the heaviest alcohols on the way through, which is why Reyka can get away with a single distillation where others run the spirit through a column five or six times. Character is kept rather than polished off.

The water comes from a spring running through a lava field around 4,000 years old, containing almost no minerals. After distillation the spirit is filtered through lava rock, which is porous in a different way from activated charcoal and leaves the vodka crisp rather than softly rounded. Batches are small, and each distillation takes about five hours.

The result is not a neutral vodka. There is clear citrus on the nose, a spiced edge mid palate, and the alcohol shows up as a warmth that burns a little. Some would call that imperfect, others would call it character. Reyka belongs in the second camp, and that is why it holds its ground in drinks where a wholly characterless vodka simply vanishes.

Tasting notes

Nose

Plenty of citrus, mostly lemon peel with a trace of grapefruit. Beneath that sits a clean, cool minerality with no sweetness.

Palate

Classic grain vodka with a clear citrus streak and a spiced edge of white pepper. The alcohol burns a little and gives a drink something to stand on.

Finish

Spiced and dry, medium length. The citrus holds longest while the pepper slowly withdraws.

Specifications

Name: Reyka Small Batch
Distillery: Reyka
Region/Country: Borgarnes, Iceland
Type: Icelandic Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Single distillation in a Carter-Head still, filtered through lava rock
Serving suggestion: Ice cold and neat in a small glass, or in a Moscow Mule where the citrus meets the ginger.

Flavour profile

Citrus · Spiced · Mineral · Crisp

Did you know?

Reyka's master distiller is called Þórður Sigurðsson, and he also looks after the village fire engine and police car. In a coastal town of a couple of thousand people there is no room for only doing one thing.

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A griffin sits in the coat of arms of Riga, half lion and half eagle, and it has followed the brand onto the label. Behind it stands a distillery that has worked in the city since 1900 and still runs its vodka through both charcoal and silver before it reaches the bottle.

Expert description

Riga Black Vodka is a Latvian Vodka from Latvijas Balzams in Riga, distilled from wheat and rye and bottled at 40%.

Latvijas Balzams dates back to 1900 and today belongs to Amber Beverage Group. The house is best known for Riga Black Balsam, but the vodka is made at the same address, and the two products share both a name and the griffin on the label.

The spirit comes from selected wheat and rye, run up to five times through copper stills. Artesian spring water is then added, meaning water from a sealed aquifer that pushes itself up under its own pressure. The filtration is the pride of the house: seven stages, with both activated black charcoal and silver ions in play.

The rye is the reason it does not simply turn soft. The wheat lays down a round, creamy texture while the rye sends spice into the finish. Aniseed and pepper hold on after the sweetness lets go, and that combination is what makes the bottle useful for more than disappearing into juice.

Tasting notes

Nose

Clean and cool with a light dark rye bread note. A trace of aniseed sits in the background.

Palate

Creamy and soft on the attack, after which the rye spice takes over. Aniseed, white pepper and a dry grain note share the middle between them.

Finish

Medium and spiced. The pepper hangs on and delivers a warmth more obvious than on most pure wheat vodkas.

Specifications

Name: Riga Black Vodka
Producer: Latvijas Balzams
Region/Country: Riga, Latvia
Type: Latvian Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Copper stills, seven stage filtration with black charcoal and silver
EAN no.: 4750021201349
Serving suggestion: Ice cold in a small glass, or in a Bloody Mary where the rye pepper meets the spices.

Flavour profile

Creamy · Spiced · Aniseed and pepper · Clean close

Did you know?

The same house makes Riga Black Balsam, a herbal bitter with 24 ingredients and a recipe traced back to 1752. Its black ceramic bottle is still the most recognisable in Latvia, and the rest of the Riga Black family is named after it.

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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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PJ Rigney travelled through the Serengeti and found a tree with fruit that hangs down like sausages on strings. Back home in Leitrim, nettles grew that by the same logic ought to do something similar for the body. He put the two together in a still in Drumshanbo.

Expert description

Sausage Tree Pure Irish Vodka is an Irish Vodka from The Shed Distillery in Drumshanbo, slow distilled with Irish grain, fruit from Kigelia africana and wild Irish nettle, bottled at 43%.

The Shed Distillery was founded in 2014 in Drumshanbo, County Leitrim, and is probably best known for Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin. Behind the whole operation stands PJ Rigney, a man with a well documented urge to travel a long way after a raw material.

Kigelia africana is called the sausage tree because of the large, heavy fruit that hangs down from the branches on long stalks. The fruit has carried a reputation for purifying properties in African folk medicine for centuries, and it was exactly that property Rigney recognised in the wild Irish nettle growing in the woodland around the distillery.

The distillation runs slowly, so grain, fruit and nettle all get time to give up their share. The result lands somewhere between a classic vodka and something more botanical. There is fruit and herb in it, yet it never becomes a gin, and the 43% gives it a little more body than a standard 40% would have.

Tasting notes

Nose

Clean with a green pull from the nettle. Behind it sits a mild, almost melon-like fruitiness.

Palate

Full and lightly sweet with clear herbal character across the middle. The grain holds the base, and the fruit arrives as a round sensation rather than as outright flavour.

Finish

Medium and dry with a green, faintly bitter trail from the nettle.

Specifications

Name: Sausage Tree Pure Irish Vodka
Distillery: The Shed Distillery
Region/Country: Drumshanbo, Ireland
Type: Irish Vodka
ABV: 43%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Slow distilled with Irish grain, fruit from Kigelia africana and wild Irish nettle
Serving suggestion: 4 cl with ice cold soda water, a squeeze of lime and a thick wedge of orange, as the distillery recommends.

Flavour profile

Herbal · Full · Lightly fruity · Dry close

Did you know?

The distillery bar is called the Honey Badger Bar after the honey badger, an animal that eats carpenter bees burrowed inside the bark of the sausage tree and takes the stings as part of the deal. PJ Rigney uses it as an image for his own motto: nature has no place for the weak.

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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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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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There's something about a bottle that's never been opened. This one has sat sealed for decades, its imperial crown and coat of arms still intact — a small piece of American-Russian trade history, bottled in glass.

Expert Description

Smirnoff No. 57 Vodka is an American 100 proof vodka bottled by Ste Pierre Smirnoff Fls at 50% ABV, most likely somewhere between the 1950s and the 1970s. The label leans on the brand's old claim as "Purveyors to the Imperial Russian Court 1886-1917" and carries the four imperial Russian coats of arms that mark Heublein-era Smirnoff bottles. The back lists four bottling locations at once — Hartford in Connecticut, Allen Park in Michigan, Menlo Park in California, and Paducah in Kentucky — a sign of just how large Smirnoff's American production had become by that point.

This is an export bottling. That's confirmed by the red "U.S. Internal Revenue" tax strip across the cap, a legal requirement on American spirits until it was phased out in 1985. Given the bottle is both unopened and several decades old, we treat it primarily as a collector's piece rather than something meant for drinking — the contents may well have shifted in character over time, even with the seal intact.

Tasting Notes

Nose

Straightforward grain vodka at its most honest — neutral, with a touch of warmth from the 50% ABV and no perfumed notes to speak of.

Palate

Sharp and direct on first contact, a dry, grainy body building toward a clear alcoholic heat.

Finish

Short and clean, with little sweetness — typical of a classic, unfiltered high-proof vodka from the period.

Specifications

Name: Smirnoff No. 57 Vodka
Distillery: Smirnoff
Region/Country: USA
Type: Vodka
ABV: 50%
Size: 37.8 CL
Edition: Export bottling (tax-stripped)

Flavour Profile

Grainy · Dry · Bold · Classic

Did You Know?

In June 1950, bartenders marched down Fifth Avenue in New York carrying banners demanding an end to the Moscow Mule — "Down with the Moscow Mule." The stunt landed Smirnoff a full page of free publicity in the New York Daily News, and the drink only got more popular from there.

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The red label is built to disappear into the drink. The black one is built to do the opposite. Same house, same Scottish distillery, but two entirely different ideas about what a vodka is supposed to do. The black one is the bottle that dares to have an opinion.

Expert description

Smirnoff Black Small Batch No. 55 Triple Distilled Premium Vodka is a British Vodka made from wheat and bottled at 40%.

Diageo launched Smirnoff Black in the United States in 1995 and in Britain two years later. The very first bottles were distilled and bottled in Moscow, but production moved to Scotland shortly afterwards and has stayed there since. The packaging was redrawn in 2006 and again in 2008.

The difference between black and red comes down to how much gets taken out along the way. The red is cleaned ten times through charcoal until there is barely anything left to grip. The black gets a single pass after a turn through copper, and the grain character is allowed to stay. That makes a heavier, creamier vodka you can drink neat without feeling short-changed.

Tasting notes

Nose

Round and nutty. Toasted bran, a touch of aniseed and something sweet in the direction of marzipan.

Palate

Full and soft. Creamy nut character and a dry grain sweetness that sits around longer than you would expect from a vodka.

Finish

Spiced and warm. Liquorice root and pepper in equal measure, with a dry grain note right at the end.

Specifications

Name: Smirnoff Black Small Batch No. 55 Triple Distilled Premium Vodka
Producer: Smirnoff
Region/Country: Scotland, United Kingdom
Type: British Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Triple distilled and redistilled in a copper pot still
EAN no.: 5410316265164
Serving suggestion: Neat over a single large ice cube, or in a Vodka Martini without too much vermouth.

Flavour profile

Full-bodied · Creamy · Nutty · Grain-driven

Did you know?

The charcoal is not the same as in the red bottle. Smirnoff Black is filtered through Siberian silver birch charcoal, and only once. The choice was made to clean the spirit without stripping out the grain character the whole black label is built on.

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Copper does something to spirit that steel never gets close to. The metal binds sulphur compounds and leaves behind a distillate with a weight no column can manufacture. At Cameronbridge in Fife stands a copper pot still more than 150 years old, and this bottle takes its name from it.

Expert description

Smirnoff Copper Pot Still No. 55 Triple Distilled Vodka is a British Vodka made from wheat, redistilled in a copper pot still and bottled at 40%.

The number 55 points to a different recipe from the red No. 21. Where No. 21 travels through seven columns of activated charcoal for up to eight hours, No. 55 gets a single pass through birch charcoal. In exchange it goes past the copper, and that is where the whole difference sits.

Small batch here means the runs are kept small enough for the copper pot still to handle the entire volume. The result is a vodka with noticeably more body than the red one: oily in the mouth, nutty through the middle and carrying a spiced pull at the end. This is not one to bury in a Bloody Mary.

Tasting notes

Nose

Liquorice and wheat bran, dry and faintly floury. Behind it sit brazil nut and a soft aniseed tone.

Palate

Heavy in the mouth and close to oily. Chestnut and creamy nut sweetness fill the middle before fennel cuts through and clears it away.

Finish

Spiced and long by vodka standards. Liquorice and nut first, then cracked black pepper that stays put.

Specifications

Name: Smirnoff Copper Pot Still No. 55 Triple Distilled Vodka
Producer: Smirnoff
Region/Country: Scotland, United Kingdom
Type: British Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Triple distilled and redistilled in a copper pot still
EAN no.: 5410316265164
Serving suggestion: Neat and cool in a small glass, or in a Vodka Martini with a twist of lemon.

Flavour profile

Oily · Nutty · Spiced · Full-bodied

Did you know?

When the bottle was redesigned in January 2008, the large copper script reading Copper Pot Still was demoted to small print while the words Small Batch were added. The No. 55 ended up on the skirt of the capsule. That is part of why the same vodka now appears under several names on the shelf.

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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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There is a reason pink bottles move into the fridge as soon as the weather turns. Raspberry Crush was built for ice, bubbles and a garden chair late in the afternoon. Not for a frozen glass and a serious expression.

Expert description

Smirnoff Raspberry Crush is a Spirit Drink with Vodka carrying natural raspberry flavour, bottled at 25%.

The foundation is Smirnoff's triple distilled vodka, given the natural flavour of pink raspberries and then brought down to 25%. That strength is exactly why the label reads Spirit Drink rather than Vodka: in the EU a vodka must reach at least 37.5%, and below that line the legal category changes.

The lower strength also changes how the bottle behaves in the glass. Sweetness gets more room, the alcohol does not burn, and it can go into a tall glass with lemonade without the drink turning heavy. The producer points to lemonade over ice or a splash of prosecco as the two obvious routes.

Tasting notes

Nose

Fresh raspberries and something like boiled sweets. Light and direct, with very little alcohol on the nose.

Palate

Soft and sweet with clear berry. The alcohol sits well back, which makes it more juicy than sharp.

Finish

Short and fruity with a sweetness that clings slightly. No warmth at the end.

Specifications

Name: Smirnoff Raspberry Crush
Producer: Smirnoff
Region/Country: United Kingdom
Type: Spirit Drink with Vodka
ABV: 25%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Triple distilled vodka base
Serving suggestion: A tall glass with lemonade and plenty of ice, or topped with prosecco as an aperitif.

Flavour profile

Raspberry · Sweet · Light · Juicy

Did you know?

The Crush name lives on outside the bottle too. Smirnoff sells a canned range under the same name in mango and peach and in lemon and lime, made by the same people behind the world's best-selling vodka.

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Raspberry is the fruit that loses most when it gets turned into syrup. The aroma is floral and light, the flavour tart and brief, and all of it disappears once sugar takes charge. The Twist bottle tries to keep the berry alive at full strength.

Expert description

Smirnoff Raspberry Twist Triple Distilled Vodka is a British Vodka carrying raspberry flavour, triple distilled and bottled at 37.5%.

The base is the same neutral vodka found in the red bottle: triple distilled grain, cleaned through activated charcoal and then given raspberry flavour. Because the strength is held at 37.5%, the bottle may legally be called vodka in the EU. That is far from a given among flavoured bottles, plenty of which sit below the line.

The consequence shows up in the glass. Alcohol carries the fruit further, the sweetness turns less sticky, and the bottle can act as a proper cocktail base rather than only a long drink. A Raspberry Collins and a French Martini both work without any rebuilding.

Tasting notes

Nose

Raspberry straight away, more jam than fresh berry. Behind it runs a floral streak in the direction of rose.

Palate

Sweet at the start, with acidity right behind. The berry is concentrated and faintly seedy, and the alcohol keeps the sugar in check.

Finish

Dry and berry-driven with a small bite. The sweetness drops away and the fruit acidity is what remains.

Specifications

Name: Smirnoff Raspberry Twist Triple Distilled Vodka
Producer: Smirnoff
Region/Country: United Kingdom
Type: British Vodka
ABV: 37.5%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Triple distilled and charcoal filtered
EAN no.: 5410316982474
Serving suggestion: With soda, lime and plenty of ice, or in a French Martini with pineapple juice.

Flavour profile

Raspberry · Sweet · Tart · Fruit-driven

Did you know?

The 21 on the red bottle is neither an age nor a strength but the number of the recipe Vladimir Smirnov developed around 1917. The same recipe sits underneath the flavoured bottles, which is why the raspberry label still reads Triple Distilled.

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A small bottle takes up nothing in a bag and does not sit half empty at the back of a cupboard for two years. 35 cl is the size you take to the summer house, into the tent bag or into a gift box alongside two glasses and a bag of limes.

Expert description

Smirnoff RED Triple Distilled No. 21 Vodka 35 cl is a British Vodka made from grain, triple distilled and bottled at 37.5%.

The contents are exactly what sits in the larger bottles. No. 21 is the number of the recipe, and the spirit is cleaned through columns of activated charcoal until there is little left beyond alcohol, water and a dry peppery note. Nothing about the liquid changes, only how long it lasts.

The small format carries a practical advantage people rarely mention. An opened vodka bottle does not fade the way wine does, but the air in a half empty bottle still works away slowly. A 35 cl gets finished while it is fresh, and it is also the easiest way to try a vodka before committing to a litre.

Tasting notes

Nose

Tight and clean. A wisp of charcoal and something close to wet flint.

Palate

Dry from the first sip. The grain is there but brief, with a peppery warmth sitting right behind it.

Finish

Clean and quick with black pepper at the end. No sweetness, no tail.

Specifications

Name: Smirnoff RED Triple Distilled No. 21 Vodka 35 cl
Producer: Smirnoff
Region/Country: United Kingdom
Type: British Vodka
ABV: 37.5%
Size: 35 CL
Distillation method: Triple distilled and charcoal filtered
EAN no.: 5410316671286
Serving suggestion: Ice cold as a shot with herring and rye bread, or in a Screwdriver with fresh orange.

Flavour profile

Dry · Clean · Peppery · Straightforward

Did you know?

Pyotr Smirnov supplied vodka to the Russian imperial court in the late nineteenth century, and that appointment became part of the brand identity. The double-headed eagle on the label comes straight from there, borrowed from the imperial coat of arms.

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Some bottles stand at the front of the window. Others stand at the front of the speed rail. The litre bottle with the red shield belongs firmly to the second group. It gets lifted, poured and put back a hundred times in an evening without anyone giving it a thought. It was built to work.

Expert description

Smirnoff Red Triple Distilled Premium Vodka 100 cl is a British Vodka made from grain, triple distilled and bottled at 37.5%.

Behind the label sits recipe number 21, the one the whole house rests on. Grain neutral spirit is rectified in column, cut back with demineralised water and then sent through seven columns of activated charcoal. Filtration can take up to eight hours, and the spirit passes roughly seven tonnes of charcoal before it is brought down to bottling strength.

The process removes rather than adds, and that is the entire point. The litre format is built for many glasses rather than one, and it behaves itself in everything from a Moscow Mule to a Bloody Mary. If you are drinking it neat, keep it cold. Warmth pulls the pepper forward at the expense of the grain.

Tasting notes

Nose

Almost silent on the first pass. Stay with it and a dry chalky note appears, along with a trace of black pepper.

Palate

Light and clean. The grain shows as a thin ribbon of sweetness through the middle before the pepper takes over.

Finish

Short, dry and peppery. It lets go quickly, which is a virtue in a bottle meant for mixing.

Specifications

Name: Smirnoff Red Triple Distilled Premium Vodka 100 cl
Producer: Smirnoff
Region/Country: United Kingdom
Type: British Vodka
ABV: 37.5%
Size: 100 CL
Distillation method: Triple distilled and charcoal filtered
EAN no.: 5410316442930
Serving suggestion: A Moscow Mule with ginger beer and lime, or ice cold in a Bloody Mary.

Flavour profile

Neutral · Dry · Peppery · Built for mixing

Did you know?

In August 1952 the British drinks house Gilbey took on the right to make and sell Smirnoff in Britain. European Smirnoff has had a British address ever since, and the litre bottle on the shelf has never been anywhere near Moscow.

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No other spirits bottle has been poured this many times. The red label stands behind a bar in Tokyo, in a kitchen cupboard in Jutland and on a shelf in a ferry kiosk somewhere in the Baltic. Seventy centilitres of something made as neutral as it can possibly be, which is exactly why it fits in everywhere.

Expert description

Smirnoff Red Triple Distilled Premium Vodka 70 cl is a British Vodka made from grain, triple distilled and bottled at 37.5%.

This is the best-selling vodka in the world and the largest premium spirits brand on the planet. The recipe carries the number 21, and the distillate is filtered ten times through charcoal before it reaches the bottle. All of that work is about removal: fusel oils, heavier alcohols and any other residue that might hand the contents a personality.

Neutrality is rarely something you praise a spirit for, but here it is the design. The 70 cl bottle is the one the rest of the vodka shelf gets measured against, and it is also the one a large share of the classic vodka drinks were originally built around. It pushes back at neither tomato juice, coffee liqueur nor tonic.

Tasting notes

Nose

Very reserved. A cool chalk impression and a suggestion of charcoal if you give it time in the glass.

Palate

Mineral and light. Cracked black pepper through the middle and a flick of peppermint freshness that leaves as fast as it arrived.

Finish

Dry and peppery with a trace of chargrilled pepper. Short, but broader than you would expect.

Specifications

Name: Smirnoff Red Triple Distilled Premium Vodka 70 cl
Producer: Smirnoff
Region/Country: United Kingdom
Type: British Vodka
ABV: 37.5%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Triple distilled and charcoal filtered
EAN no.: 5011013400157
Serving suggestion: A Vodka Tonic with lime, or ice cold in a classic Vodka Martini.

Flavour profile

Clean · Mineral · Lightly peppery · Neutral

Did you know?

When the Bolsheviks seized the family distillery in Moscow in 1917, Vladimir Smirnov escaped the firing squad and fled through Constantinople to France. Outside Paris he built a new, small distillery and gave the family name a French twist. That is why the label reads Smirnoff and not Smirnov.

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Some bottles get saved for occasions and some simply need to be there. A litre in the freezer belongs to the second group. It comes out for guests, for the fish on Saturday and for the glass nobody had planned on.

Expert description

Sobieski Estate Vodka Single Rye is a Polish Vodka made from pure Dankowskie rye, bottled at 40% in a 100 cl bottle.

The litre is the format that makes sense if the vodka is meant to be used. Sobieski is built to be poured rather than admired: the label is plain, the glass is simple, and the priority clearly sits with what is inside. That is the same line the house has held since it dropped the idea that more distillations automatically mean better vodka.

The grain is Dankowskie rye from Polish fields, and there is nothing else in it. Rye brings a bread and pepper signature that a wheat vodka never reaches, and because the spirit runs only once through the forty metre house column, that character stays put. The water comes from Oligocene springs.

At this size it also becomes a different sort of bottle behind a bar. There is enough for a round of shots, a jug of Bloody Mary and the everyday alternative to gin in the same week without a trip to restock. The rye survives being mixed with strong things and does not vanish behind tomato, ginger or horseradish.

Tasting notes

Nose

Dry grain and baker's dough, with a breath of aniseed over the top. The aroma is restrained and does not close up even when the glass is cold.

Palate

Firm and dry. The rye sits mid mouth as crust and flour, and a peppery warmth rises slowly from behind.

Finish

Clean and medium. The warmth falls away evenly and leaves a dry, faintly salted impression.

Specifications

Name: Sobieski Estate Vodka Single Rye
Distillery: Destylarnia Sobieski
Region/Country: Starogard Gdański, Poland
Type: Polish Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 100 CL
Distillation method: Single distilled in the tallest column in Poland
EAN no.: 5900226006860
Serving suggestion: Straight from the freezer into frozen glasses at the table, or in a Vodka Gimlet where the rye spice meets the lime.

Flavour profile

Dry · Peppery · Grainy · Direct

Did you know?

The word vodka first appears in writing in 1405, in a document from Sandomierz in Poland. There it did not describe a drink but medicine and cosmetics — the glass came later.

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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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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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Ven sits in the middle of the Öresund strait, a flat patch of land with slopes falling to the water and some of the best farmland in Sweden. A couple of hundred people live there. There is also a distillery that calls itself the smallest pot still distillery in the world, and which grows its grain within sight of the still.

Expert description

Spirit of Hven Swedish Organic Vodka is a Swedish Organic Vodka made from certified organic grain, rested in oak casks, redistilled and bottled at 40%.

The unusual part is in that sentence. The vodka is not bottled straight off the still but first spends between six and twenty-four months in oak casks. It is then distilled again, and it is that second pass which removes the colour while the texture and part of the cask character stay behind. The result is a vodka that is crystal clear in the glass but behaves fuller than its colour suggests.

The distillery was founded in 2008 by Henric and Anja Molin, and Henric Molin still runs the distillation. The house keeps both a laboratory and its own hotel, and the technical level is high: distillation is deliberately run below the 96.5% a column can reach, because those final percentage points are exactly where the aroma compounds live.

The grain is certified organic and sourced as locally as possible. The island soil shifts from mineral rich clay in the north to sand in the south, and the microclimate that comes from lying between two coasts is part of the explanation for how somewhere this small can ship spirits to more than 40 countries.

Tasting notes

Nose

Soft and lightly sweet. Vanilla first, clearly from the cask, then a pale grain note and a suggestion of dried hay.

Palate

Full and round without being heavy. The vanilla continues, the grain gives a mild sweetness, and a lightly spiced warmth sits underneath.

Finish

Medium length and dry. The vanilla lingers longest and the close is soft rather than sharp.

Specifications

Name: Spirit of Hven Swedish Organic Vodka
Distillery: Spirit of Hven
Region/Country: Ven, Skåne, Sweden
Type: Swedish Organic Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 50 CL
Distillation method: Pot distilled, rested in oak casks and then redistilled
EAN no.: 7350044859021
Serving suggestion: Cool and neat in a small glass with shellfish, or in a Martini where the vanilla gets room.

Flavour profile

Vanilla · Soft · Full · Lightly spiced

Did you know?

Ven is the island where Tycho Brahe built his observatory Uraniborg in the sixteenth century and mapped the night sky with the naked eye. The distillery has folded his legacy into its naming: the house Single Malt Whisky is called Tycho's Star, after the new star he observed and described.

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