Koskenkorva is the kind of vodka that makes you question why anyone pays three figures for a bottle of the stuff. Produced in the small Finnish village of the same name, this is a spirit born from an almost obsessive pursuit of purity — distilled over 250 times (yes, really) from barley grown in the distillery's own fields and blended with glacier water.
The nose is startlingly clean. There is a faint grain sweetness if you go looking for it, but otherwise this is as close to odourless as vodka gets. On the palate, a silky, almost oily texture carries gentle barley notes and a crystalline mineral quality that speaks of its glacial water source.
What sets Koskenkorva apart from its Nordic peers is the sheer commitment to the craft. The continuous distillation process removes virtually every congener, resulting in a spirit of extraordinary smoothness. This is vodka as the Finns intended it — no nonsense, no pretension, just exceptional purity.
At £26.50, this is a genuine bargain. Serve it from the freezer in a proper shot glass, or use it as the foundation for a Martini where you want the vermouth to do the talking. It will not let you down either way.
Koskenkorva deserves far more recognition on this side of the North Sea. If you have been sleeping on Finnish vodka, consider this your wake-up call.
