The Bartenders' Brand Awards covers all of the major cateogories and in this edition of our highlights we narrow in on vodka.
The vodka session featured two truly standout products. Kirker Greer’s Ukiyo Japanese Rice Vodka ticked all the boxes for our judges and received gold medals in the design and value rounds as well as the blind tasting.
Judges praised the vodka’s “complex nose” with “great balance of sweet floral notes” and a bottle design that “would definitely stand out on a back bar”.
After topping the gin list, The Boatyard Distillery settles for second place in vodka. Like Ukiyo, it also received gold medals across all categories, with judges finding a well-positioned vodka full of character with notes of “coconut”, “banana” and a “silky viscosity”.
Perhaps a surprise in the final podium position, White Claw is a brand that built its notoriety in its domination of the hard seltzer category, but a third-place finish here shows its pivot to vodka appears to be a sensible move. The brand’s Premium Vodka was “smooth, with a touch of sweetness”, “high viscosity” and a “lot of texture”.
Completing the top five are two Lithuanian vodkas from Stumbras. In fourth place, the brand’s Distinct Young Potato, which took a silver in the blind tasting thanks to its “sweet, lingering taste” and “high viscosity”, and in fifth, the brand’s Distinct Winter Wheat, which also was awarded a silver in the tasting with judges finding it “peppery and smooth”.