Review: Walton’s Vodka
Walton’s Vodka is crafted at Pennington Distilling Company in Nashville Tennessee. It was awarded a Double Gold Medal at the prestigeous San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2020. Husband and wife Jeff and Jenny Pennington established Pennington Distilling Company in 2011. It was originally called Speakeasy Spirits. They currently produce 5 varieties of Davidson Reserve Tennessee Whiskey, 4 Pickers Vodka’s, 4 Whisper Creek Tennessee Sipping Creams, Pickers canned Crafted Cocktails, and Pickers Unplugged Vodka Soda. Walton’s Vodka was named for Jenny Pickers father who built his own motorboat at the age of thirteen. It is made from red winter wheat, first pot distilled in a 550 gallon Vendome Copper & Brass Works Hybrid pot still and then a 24 foot column still. The spirit is slow drip filtered 4 times and cut with Tennessee limestone water before bottling. Read more 
Review: Oola Vodka
Oola Vodka is crafted at Oola Distillery. Oola is named after the German Shepard dog of Founder and Head Distiller Kirby Kallas-Lewis. Kirby founded Oola in the Capital Hill area of Seattle January 2010. The distillery also produces Gin and Whiskey. Prior to distilling spirits, Kirby worked on an Alaskan fishing boat, raised milk goats, created paintings, and sculptures while living in Tahiti, and ran an art gallery in New York City. Oola Vodka is made from locally grown wheat. It is small batch distilled on a fractional still built by Vendome Copper & Brass, and charcoal filtered once, prior to bottling at 84 proof. Read more
Review: LA Vodka
LA Vodka was launched September 2022 in California. Co-Founder and CEO Yasar Chaudhary worked with the most experienced and knowledgeable Master Distillers handcrafting LA Vodka. It is made in California from 100% winter wheat and double distilled on a custom copper pot still made in France. The spirit is minimally carbon filtered before bottling. While a specific distillery is not mentioned I know one in Ukiah California that has been crafting spirits since 1983 with a custom copper pot still made in France. Read more
Review: Black Band Vodka
Black Band Vodka is crafted at Black Band Distillery in Peoria Illinois. They also produce a Gin, Bourbon, Rye, Whiskey and Coffee Liqueur. Peoria was once hailed the whiskey capital of the world. Prohibition ended that. Peoria native and principal distiller Chris Ober began studying Peoria’s history of distilling and researching different distillation and fermentation processes in 2006. He acquired a century old building in the historic warehouse district of Peoria in 2017. Construction began in 2018. In 2020 whiskey production began. Black Band Distillery opened their doors the Spring of 2021 and now includes a farm to table restaurant and cocktail bar. Along the way Chris attended courses on distillation at Kothe Distillationstechnik, and Siebel Institute of Technology for Craft Distilling. He also worked a one on one apprenticeship with Master Distiller Robert Birnecker at Kovel Distillery in Chicago. Black Band Vodka is crafted from 100% Warthog wheat on a 5000L Kothe Hybrid Still. Read more
Review: Nantucket Vodka
Nantucket Vodka is crafted at Triple Eight Distillery from organic wheat and pure water sourced from their well. The well, numbered 888 was the inspiration for the distilleries name. Triple Eight distillery was founded in 1998 and while they are probably best known for their award winning Notch Single Malt Whiskey they have been producing vodka since they launched the original Triple Eight Vodka in 2001. That vodka was made from organic corn sourced from Holland. Triple Eight currently produces The Notch Single Malt Whiskey, bourbon, rum, gin, 5 flavored vodka’s and most recently they launched a line of canned cocktails. Read more
Review: Kristone Vodka
Kristone Vodka is crafted at Crystal Rain Distillery by Kristian Hristov. The Crystal Rain Distillery opened in Lake Forest Illinois in 2019 but they recently opened their new distillery in Wheeling Illinois. While they currently just produce vodka, their Facebook page shows images of oak barrels, hinting more is on the horizon. Kristone is made from Organic Winter Wheat and water purified by both carbon and reverse osmosis. It is slow distilled 6 times through a copper pot still with 24 plates and is filtered through silver and platinum. Read more
Review: Sinpatch Vodka
Sinpatch Vodka is a true farm to glass spirit crafted in a former dairy barn in Wassaic New York. John Dyson owner of Williams Selyem Winery and his Son in Law Joel Levangia founded the Tenmile Distillery. Sinpatch is named for the road the distillery was build on. Legend has it 300 years ago a local minister once described the area as nothing but a patch of sin due to the gambling houses, brothels, and saloons that populated the area. Tenmile Distillery currently only sells Sinpatch Vodka, and Listening Rock Gin while their first batches of Little Rest American Single Malt Whisky, barrel age. All of the spirits are crafted by Master Distiller Shane Fraser who joined Tenmile after serving as Master Distiller for Wolfburn Distillery, the most northerly malt Whisky Distillery in Scotland. Tenmile is made from locally grown wheat. The spirit is distilled through a pot still and a Coffey still with a special reflux condenser at the top. It is then filtered through activated charcoal made from their own recycled oak whisky barrels. Read more
Review: Cascadian Vodka
Cascadian Vodka is crafted at Oregon Spirit Distillers in Bend Oregon from local winter wheat grown in Oregon’s High Desert and pure Cascade Mountain spring water. After two years of planning Brad Irwin opened the distillery in 2009. He soon started distilling and barrel aging whiskey. In addition to vodka they currently produce gin, absinthe, limoncello, bourbon, rye, and wheat whiskey. Read more
Review: Blackland Vodka
Blackland Vodka is a grain to glass vodka crafted with locally grown Texas wheat. It is distilled in Fort Worth Texas on a custom built still made in The Netherlands by iStill. The distillery opened its doors 2019 and they currently also produce gin, bourbon, rye whiskey, and Texas Pecan Brown Sugar Bourbon. Founder Markus Kypreos started his career as an attorney and later graduated from the Culinary School of Fort Worth. He is also a certified sommelier. The Blackland Distillery is named for the Blackland Prairie that runs from the Red River to the North and San Antonio to the south. Head Distiller Ezra Cox had brewed beer and distilled spirits for 25 years including crafting spirits at his own Ezra Cox Distillery in Washington prior to joining the Blackland team. Read more
Review: Epiphany Vodka
Epiphany Vodka is crafted at McClintock Distilling Company. The distillery was founded by Braeden Bumpers and Tyler Hegamyer in 2015. They built the distillery in a 100 year old former mechanics garage in downtown Frederick Maryland. They currently craft about a dozen spirits including several whiskeys, gins, a couple of vodkas, and cordials. Epiphany Vodka is made with Non GMO organic white wheat sourced from local family farms. The spirits is double distilled through 18 plates and then triple filtered. Epiphany was named the number one craft vodka in their 2020 readers poll. Read more