Eristoff Vodka Review

In my recent visit to Guwahati, I did a bit of vodka shopping. I was amazed by the number of wine shops there. Literally, every second shop is a wine shop and these shops are privately owned. So you can see various lighting and decorations in each of the shops just to make one’s shop better than the other, couple of doors away :)  But none of these shops have bar attached. In a place where it’s cold most of the time, I guess it’s obvious that people drink a lot.
Now I went into one of the bigger shops, with my broken Hindi, I somehow made the shop keeper understand that I wanted to know what brands of Vodka he has. I was actually looking for the Romanov Red, which was advertised outside. But they (nor neither of the other shops) had it. The other brands they had were all the usual ones EXCEPT for one. It was a quarter bottle, oddly (but nicely) shaped, with a blue label. It was called Eristoff. When I enquired the price, it was Rs.110 hmm in a place where a quarter Romanov was Rs.50 (compared to Chennai’s Rs.70) it was exorbitantly expensive. I thought there must be something special then and asked for a full bottle. Sorry! , he said, this stuff comes only in quarters. So I paid for a quarter. The guy nicely wrapped the bottle in paper, then put it in a carry bag and gave it (unlike in Chennai, where they throw the bottle on your face ). I checked it in the flight and brought it back to Chennai.
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to examine the bottle and do some research on it. I discovered, it was indeed a very famous international brand.

This is what Wikipedia has to say
“Eristoff Vodka originates from Georgia and was first created for Prince Eristoff in 1806.
Made from 100% grain spirit, Eristoff is triple distilled and then charcoal filtered, a technique first established in 18th century Russia.
The Eristoff logo – a wolf howling at a crescent moon – represents the Persian name for Georgia, Virshan, meaning “land of the wolf”. Today, Georgia is still home to the grey wolf, which for hundreds of years has been a part of Russian culture and folklore.

Eristoff’s bell-shaped bottle is embossed with the imperial crown and around the base of the bottle the words “Original Recipe of Prince Eristoff of 1806” are written in Russian Cyrillic text.” Read more here.

The brand has a wonderful website. Take a look at http://www.eristoff.com/
Their land of the wolf commercial is very famous. Take a look at it in youtube

On the label of the bottle which I bought it says

“Prince Nocklai Alexandroivch / 1806 / Eristoff / Triple Distilled / Premium Vodka”
In India, to my surprise, not UB, but it is made by Bacardi – Martini India, of course the guys who make Bacardi.
As for the drinking experience. Nothing to shout about. Not to the class and smoothness of the international ones like Absolut or grey goose, but definitely better than our local ones. Had a tinge of citrus bitterness to it. Less of the typical vodka odour. Will definitely not make it my regular drink, given a chance. But for sure can be an occasional one.

Sadly, I don’t think we get this in the southern states at least in Tamilnadu, Kerala. So if you go to any place where you can get it, grab one! Cheers!