A pure, clean nose, which appears initially to be slightly oily before the high toned, crisp, slightly floral notes emerge as do some earthy notes. It is fuller and rounder than the potato vodka and a lot more floral. The palate is soft and exceptionally creamy, almost lactose like. There is a bucket full of pure vanilla pod, crème caramel. Robust and succulent, the alcohol takes awhile to power through its powdery depth. Lovely length with a pleasant touch of sweetness.
In 2007 Will Chase, the founder and managing director of Tyrrells the gourmet crisp manufacturer was crowned the regional winner in the Bank of Scotland’s Corporate Entrepreneur Challenge. He planned to use the £5m interest free loan to build a distillery at Rosemaund Farm, deep in the Herefordshire countryside. After a fact finding trip to America, visiting micro-distilleries he commissioned a handmade 60ft copper still from Germany. Apparently it is so tall that they had to add a tower to their old hop kiln building to fit it in! They believe that it is this height coupled with 42 bubble plates increases the reflux and thus produces the purest of vodka’s. The spirit is distilled three times, reaching an abv of 96%, when it is then cut with purified water from the aquifer beneath their apple orchards. Like the Leopold Bros vodka, the spirit is distilled in batches, with them producing around 3,500 bottles a week.
Will Chase is quoted as saying “We want to educate people in vodka; we don’t want them drinking it with coke.” I’ll definitely drink to that.
On the nose it is big, oily and powerful. Again quiet whisky-like with a lovely citrus note to balance its underlying starchy character. It is extremely clean with a hint of botanicals. On the palate it is soft and starchy, artesian, with a controlled rusticity. Very intense and flavourful with hints of citrus. Lovely length with a good, crisp finish.
Soft, aromatic and relatively subtle marmalade aromas. It has a distinct thick cut breakfast-orange/ lemon rind character with an almost crystalline edge. The starchy/ creamy chase spirit character is there and balances well. The palate opens with a huge impact of naturally sweet marmalade, with the flavours mirroring the aromas. Again the spirit character balances the sweetness. What makes this stand out amongst the legions of other flavoured vodkas is the purity and naturalness of the flavourings used.
The interesting thing about this Vodka is that the raw materials are not grain, rice or potato, but apples. According to the distillery it takes three bushels of apples to make three gallons of cider to distil into one 75cl bottle of Vodka. So with approximately 100 apples to the bushel, they believe that there are 300 apples in each bottle. They distil their Vodka three times, then blend it with spring water and finally it is cold filtered through charcoal and bottled by hand.
So why is it called General John Stark? Well it honours a New Hampshire legend. Apparently he was a famous American General that led the first New Hampshire Regiment in the American Civil War and saw action at Bunkers Hill and at the battles of Trenton and Princetown with General George Washington. He also led the New Hampshire forces at the battle of Bennington during the War of Independence. He is also known for his famous drinking toast of “Live free or die; death is not the worst of evils”
So what does it taste like? The nose is quiet dense and soft with hints of citrus, vanilla and botanicals. There are no harsh edges to the aromas and it is balanced by a granity crispness. The palate is dense and has a pleasant sweetness along with a hint of citrus and that granity crispness. Lovely intensity with a slight oily finish.
Called 5 because it is distilled in a five column still. I’d suggested ignoring the horrendous label. It’s trying to look like some kind of funky Scandinavian vodka. I much preferred the original label featuring a welsh dragon, at least it was proud of where it came from and tried to stand out because of this, now it’s trying to blend into the mass of ‘trendy’ vodkas that adorn the shelves…. Shame!
Anyway, packaging aside, it’s what’s inside the bottle that’s important. It’s slightly oily and grainy on the nose. Soft and smooth becoming a touch floral over time. On the palate it is nice and soft and very slightly sweet. It has that crisp, edgy, grainy, spirity character of the Russian Vodka, but without the harsh acetone/nail varnish like note -it’s very soft and smooth. Like the nose it becomes a bit floral and finishes with a slight salty note. Unlike Russian Standard Vodka this is actually quiet pleasant to drink neat and at £16.95 is definitely a bargain.
Is a family owned and operated small batch distillery located in Denver, Colorado that produces world class liqueurs, flavoured whiskies, rum, gin, absinthe and vodka. What is interesting about their vodka is that it is produced from a blend of potatoes, malted barley and summer wheat.
Master distiller Todd Leopold personally handcrafts every spirit in a 40 gallon hand-hammered pot still that is apparently so small that you can literally wrap your arms around it. This artesian Vodka is distilled seven times, and only produced in small batches rather than by continuous distillation. Each batch fills approximately 300 bottles, and each bottle is numbered by hand according to the batch that produced it.
It probably has the most interesting nose of all the vodka’s – It has almost a whisky-like character with a barley/ cereal note along with a lovely softness/ oiliness and a late earthy note. The palate is very much like the nose with a lovely smoothness and a suggestion of creaminess. It is very long with a definite spicy finish.
37.95
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