Hailing from Hilton Head Distillery in South Carolina, Aermoor’s claim to fame is that it is “the world’s first cloud-sourced vodka.” What’s that mean? Says the company, “It is proofed using water from our atmospheric water generator, which pulls water vapors out of Hilton Head Island’s humid air, filters, and collects them.”

In addition to that, the spirit is pot-distilled from sugarcane (49 times according to the company, which would be unheard of for a pot still, but anyway…) and has no sugar added (well, after distillation, anyway).

And here’s how that all turned out.

The nose of the vodka is funky, heavy with mushroom and some green, weedy notes. It has a lot in common with an unaged rum, particularly an agricole, with a certain sugary pungency and a kind of smoky meatiness to the aroma, punctuated by notes of mothballs. The palate sees a modest improvement, kicking off with a surprising sweetness (though, again, no sugar is added), along with notes of banana and butterscotch. That’s muddled, unfortunately, because of lots of leather and woody tree bark notes that give the vodka an astringency, and not in a classic, Old World, medicinal way. Instead, the spirit comes across primarily with a dusky funk of cabbage and pork rinds, finishing on notes that are skunky and overpowering at times.

80 proof.

C- / $33

Aermoor Vodka

$33

4

Rating

4.0/10