THE TASTE OF POTATOES

When Master Blender Börje Karlsson set off to create Karlsson’s he was on a mission. He wanted to see if delicate virgin potatoes, just like grapes used for wine, changed in taste from year to year. The answer was that they did. They changed a lot.

So much in fact, that in order to have consistency to the taste of the vodka, he decided to make his Karlsson’s Gold out of a variety of seven different kind of virgin potatoes.

But he also kept producing his special batches every year in what he call single potato vodkas, inspired by single malt whiskey’s. In 2004 the first single potato vintage batch vodka’s were bottled. Three different virgin potatoes were used to create three different vintage vodkas, the Solist, the Minerva and the Frieslander.

In 2005 the Solist potato was distilled again and the difference was enormous. Just like a grape changes it’s character when made into a wine, so does the virgin potato. The amount of rain, sun and wind during a season, the soil where the potatoes are grown, when the frost ends, the proximity to the ocean, and the level of sea salt, all these factors play a role in what the potatoes taste like.

In 2006 the virgin potato Gammel Svensk Röd (Old Swedish Red) was re-introduced to Sweden and harvested in Cape Bjäre. The slightly red potato gave a whole new character and taste and this single potato vintage vodka together with the Solist potato are two the key ingredients in the Karlsson’s Gold blend.

Every year, a new batch of limited and numbered vintage batch bottles gets released. Sign up to our newsletter to be the first to know when a new vintage batch become available.