Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/57654
DEPARTMENT HEADER Mastering Purity THOMAS KUUTTANEN REVISITS HISTORY WITH PURITY VODKA by Camper English W ith all the designer bottles, celebrity endorsements and increasingly exotic flavors in the vodka category, how does a new brand stand out in the crowd? Purity Vodka's approach is surpris- ingly simple: Craft the best possible spirit, and let the toughest critics have a taste. Thomas Kuuttanen, Purity's founder and Master Blender, spent 20 years developing dark spirits such as cognac, calvados and single malts, but was eventually enticed by vodka's history to create one of his own. "For more than 800 years, vodka was a part of our daily lives in Sweden, but the development of the column still changed everything," Kuuttanen says. "Prior to that, vodka was distilled like whisky—and it tasted very different from today's vodka. I wanted to regain that character, to explore that heritage and create something different from the modern, industrial vodka that lacks complexity and body." So he set about creating (or rather, recreating) a traditional Swedish vodka, along the way commissioning a custom-built still, blending the spirit and even tweaking the water that goes into the final product. Kuuttanen says he wanted to combine the clean qualities of vodka with the attributes of aged spirit, including texture and body. It took a decade to do it, but with a lot of hard work, ceaseless experimentation and hands-on expertise, Purity was born. PHOTO: DOUG YOUNG 56 / the tasting panel / march 2012