Reyka Vodka

A clean and environmentally responsible Vodka from Iceland is the definition of glacial soft.

Founded in 2005 by William Grant & Sons, Reyka Distillery is located in a costal Icelandic village called Borgarnes on a narrow peninsula about thirty miles north of the capital of Reykjavik. The town is so small that their master distiller — Pórõur Sigurõsson — also serves as the police chief… and the fire chief. The facility is 100% powered by environmentally-friendly geothermal power and utilizes natural glacial run-off water. Thus they call their Spirit the “world’s first green Vodka.” Notably, they use a copper Carter-head still, which makes us suspect that a Gin is in the works for the future.

Reyka Vodka is distilled from a mash of wheat and barley. And as they famously claim, the water is pure glacial water that runs through a 4,000 year-old lava field and the final Spirit is filtered through volcanic rock, adding to its purity. They make the Vodka in small batches of two hundred and fifty-five cases — which is just a drop in the bucket for a large production facility.

Smartass Corner:
Reyka is derived from Iceland’s capital city — Reykjavik — which in turn comes from the old Norse words “reykr” meaning “smoke / smoky / steam” and “vik” meaning bay. Since the distillery is power by geothermal steam, this seems a fitting name.