Are you overwhelmed by the plethora of gins on the shelf? Are you in search of one thing cleaner, subtler and, dare I say it, extra subtle? Nicely, you’re not alone. In line with Alice Lascelles, drinks journalist and writer of The Martini: ‘Lots of bartenders I do know admit their Martini of selection is definitely a Vodka-tini today – I feel many really feel very fatigued by the entire gin growth.’
Regardless of, or maybe as a result of it’s Britain’s best-selling spirit, vodka has one thing of a doubtful repute amongst drinks lovers, considered good just for including alcohol to cocktails. However lately, quite a lot of native manufacturers have emerged, producing spirits that style of their uncooked elements.
Many, akin to Spirit of Birmingham and Vela from Copper Rivet Distillery in Kent, have a whisky heritage. ‘Our vodka has almost as a lot flavour as our whisky,’ explains the latter’s Grasp Distiller Abhishek Banik. And no marvel – it’s made out of the identical mash invoice (mixture of base elements for preliminary fermentation) distilled to the next power.
Abhishek Banik, Copper Rivet Distillery
Different distillers merely use what’s round them. In line with Chris Fraser, he began Dutch Barn Vodka in Yorkshire ‘after discovering an deserted orchard the place apples had been going to waste’. Comic Ricky Gervais turned a co-owner in November 2023, Fraser says, ‘as a result of he wished to work with a sustainable spirits enterprise that’s truly performing some good’.
Uncooked supplies
All these new-wave distilleries put sustainability on the coronary heart of their proposition. Additionally in Kent, Nice Land, for instance, makes use of surplus apples, lots of which aren’t grocery store grade.
That’s what’s nice about vodka: you can also make it from something, even milk, as Black Cow in Dorset does – it makes an epic Espresso Martini. Nonetheless, one of the best ways to drink most of those terroir vodkas is neat or, as Lascelles suggests, in a Vodka-tini.
So are we prone to see a vodka explosion like we did with gin? In all probability not, as making high-strength alcohol from scratch is dear. Banik says the column nonetheless at Copper Rivet price £250,000, although the brother and sister workforce at Spirit of Birmingham handle with a high-tech £60,000 iStill operated out of a storage. With all the leftover apples out there come autumn, I’m tempted to get one.
One to attempt
Spirit of Birmingham Vodka
Made out of a mash invoice of principally historically floor-malted Maris Otter barley together with unmalted barley, malted oats, rye malt and chocolate malt, this has a definite chocolate style with cinnamon, ginger and darkish cherry – it’s craft beer in vodka kind. I’d simply drink it on the rocks. Alcohol 43%
