Mamont vodka, not your usual Russian tipple
As many of you know we always like to go off the beaten track when it comes to trying our vodkas. For this reason you wont see a comprehensive review of some mainstream brands such as Absolut, Grey Goose etc. Nothing against those vodkas but we like to bring something new to the table that many wont be aware of.
This brings us nicely to Mamont Vodka which has a great back story to it. This vodka has a true Siberian tale that is somewhat intriguing. The story begins back in 2001 when 12 explorers were stranded between glaciers near the South Pole. To pass the time whilst waiting to be rescued as well as to keep warm they decided to open a bottle of vodka and made ambitious plans to start an expedition to find the Great Mammoth. Pretty ambitious when you consider they hadn’t actually been found at this point.
Fast forward to 2003 and an original Mammoth tusk was discovered peaking out from the melting ice of the frozen tundra. Upon hearing this news, one of the 12 explorers, Frederick Paulsen, organised for a team of scientists to go to the site. Unsurprisingly given the cold conditions of the area it was revealed that attached the tusk was a whole mammoth with hair still attached. The Yukagir mammoth turned out to be one of the most important discoveries for today’s scientists.
To remember this discovery in Siberia, Mr Paulsen decided to create Mamont Vodka and bring to life a drink that is elegant, timeless and full of character. Mamont is made in one of Russia’s oldest distilleries at the foot of the famous Altai Mountains. The distillery to this day looks like its stuck in a 1970′s time-warp and don’t let this fool you into thinking the liquid is of poor quality.
Getting onto the drink itself, the water is from the famous Altai Mountain springs that is well known for its purity. Mamont is a grain vodka that is distilled using white winter wheat which maintains the high quality ingredients. This mix is then distilled five times, with Cedar nut then added. This gives a creamy taste that is reminiscent of some potato based vodkas. The final part of the process is the vodka being filtered through silver birch charcoal. You are left with quite a sweet vodka that has a creamy background to it and a pretty dry finish.
The finished product is limited in small batches and to date only 6000 bottles have been produced. Compare this to Smirnoff and Absolut who churn out upwards of 25m units each and you can see how small batch Mamont really is.