Moskovskaya Vodka

[Gillman]

I picked this up recently to replenish my vodka supply (down to a vatting of Ketel One and Absolut, not bad but a little "hard" taken neat).

I had a large choice at LCB0 (although all were 40% ABV that I saw even the luxury brands). I almost bought a Finnish vodka which uses untreated, lava-filtered water to dilute "Carter-head" distillate. I may get that tomorrow, and perhaps a more expensive brand just for comparison purposes, but today it is regular Russian vodka in the household.

Well, this is an excellent product. It has what I admire in any alcoholic drink, a flavourful but round, soft taste. The alcohol taste is there (nose and taste) but bathed in a light sweetness and something almost wood-like, maybe it is the faint traces of a charcoal filtration I am getting.

An excellent product that has a full aftertaste and pleasing finish.

I believe there are very small differences amongst all vodkas which, for discering drinkers, can be interesting and are certainly noticeable albeit often subtle.

Gary

[Grain Brain]

This is a great vodka, if you can find it. It's not widely distributed here in Texas, and I don't believe that it is across the rest of the states either. I somehow came to the conclusion over the years talking with the very few merchants I've come across that ever had this that this product is really not meant for export, and we only get shipments of it when the home market, Russia, has a surplus. I could be completely wrong about that though, as I've never really gone into any real research on the matter.

However, it is made at the same distillery as Stoli, and the description on the back of the bottle is exactly the same as Stoli (with the exception of the brand name) so I am quite convinced that it is nothing less than Stoli produced for a different market.

No matter the real story on this product, it is a mighty fine vodka and comes at a terrific price. Nice find, Gillman.

[Grain Brain]

Wow, after doing a cursory Google search, I'm seeing a few references that Moskovskaya was created before Stoli, and that it is made from rye and wheat, whereas Stoli is solely wheat.

Okay, so maybe I was wrong about them being the same juice, but it now makes sense why I like the stuff so much, being the rye fiend that I am. It only figures.

[CrispyCritter]

Once, when I was visiting one of the Sam's locations, they were offering tastes of a Swiss vodka called Xellent. It was rye-based, and, in spite of vodka's reputation for having no real taste, I noticed a whiskey-like note to it. Even so, I headed for the whiskey aisle...

[jonholl]

I bought a few bottles of Moskovskaya in bond in Amsterdam in the early 70's for ~ $1.25 a liter (if memory isn't failing me), so it's been around awhile, just not in the US. This was when Stoli was "the only Russian vodka", or at least I was told that more than once .

I took a bottle to a party in NYC when I got back to the states & the folks at the party thought it was the best vodka they'd ever had. Of course there was a lot less vodkas to choose from in the states back then.

[mozilla]

While in the liquor biz, I was told it was a Stoli product, though the mash bill never came up. We also got our last shipments in November of 2006. We were told it would no longer be available.