Review: Cape North Vodka
If the Anheuser-Busch distributor who dropped off a bottle of Cape North at my house last week is even remotely serious, you won’t be seeing Cape North on a shelf near you any time soon. (The company distributes muchc more than just beer.) According to him, obtaining samples was a truly Herculean effort. Imagine how hard it’ll be for you to get a bottle if you’re not the world’s largest brewer.
Truth be told, you can find Cape North if you try (online is your best bet), and vodka nuts may want to track down a bottle, stat.
This Swedish-French hybrid vodka is distilled from a single strain of golden wheat grown in the Burgundy region of the country. The water is — get this — imported from Sweden to France, where the spirit is distilled five times and filtered through a ceramic filtration system to finish up at 80 proof.
It’s a nicely smooth vodka, reminiscent of Grey Goose, a lightly citrus flavor playing against the traditional medicinal tones of the spirit. Some dessert-like hints, chocolate even, are present… if you search for them.
All in all it’s a very good spirit. Maybe someday I’ll even figure out what “Cape North” is supposed to mean… or where it is. Judging from the label it looks damn cold there.
80 proof.
A- / $37
Cape North Vodka
$37
“Traditional Medicinal notes”? isn’t vodka by tzar’s decree meant to be both odorless and flavorless? by judging vodka on anything other than its smoothness (quality of distillate) aren’t you simply playing into the only true difference in the market: advertising budget? The other differences in flavor are almost entirely added chemically after distillation to mask the fact that a true vodka is flavorless and smells faintly of rubbing alcohol; mostly enjoyed by those who’d like to get the effect without any enjoyment of the spirit itself.