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Blackadder IS Icelandic Vodka
IS is Blackadder's vodka, and the name is the whole story: Is means ice in Icelandic. It is produced for Blackadder in Reykjavik at Halogi, a small family owned and run distillery, using clear, cold Icelandic spring water that has spent thousands of years filtering naturally through the country's lava fields. It is bottled at 44% ABV, above the 40% standard that almost every vodka on the shelf settles for.
Vodka is usually the category of big factories and bigger marketing budgets. This is the opposite: a Scottish independent bottler known for uncompromising single cask whisky, partnering with a family distillery in Iceland, and applying the same house rules it applies to everything else. Honest strength, minimal processing, and a label that tells you where the spirit actually comes from.
About Blackadder
Blackadder International was founded in 1995 by Robin Tucek and remains a family operation, with his daughter Hannah and son Michael working alongside him. Their guiding principle is simple: the cask is king. Nothing is chill filtered, nothing is coloured, and nothing is dressed up between the producer and your glass.
Blackadder is best known as a Scottish independent whisky bottler, but the same philosophy extends to a small stable of other spirits: rums, a Dutch gin, and this Icelandic vodka. Each comes from a producer Blackadder chose deliberately, and each gets the same treatment as their single casks: purposeful strength, minimal intervention, and no cosmetic shortcuts.
Origin profile
- Produced in Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, at Halogi, a small distillery owned and run by a single family. This is craft-scale production in a category dominated by industrial volume.
- Made with Icelandic spring water, naturally filtered for thousands of years through lava fields. Iceland's volcanic rock is one of the most effective natural filters on earth, and water is most of what vodka is.
- Iceland's cold climate and famously pure water have built the country's reputation as one of the best places in the world to make clean spirit.
- Blackadder does not publish a full production breakdown for IS, and we will not invent one. What is stated here is what is known.
Recipe & strength
Bottled at 44% ABV, a deliberate step above the 40% the vodka category defaults to. Strength carries character: the extra proof gives the spirit more texture and presence, whether it is poured neat over ice or holding its own in a cocktail.
Most vodka is engineered toward neutrality, filtered and diluted until nothing remains to notice. Blackadder's approach runs the other way: choose a small producer with exceptional water, bottle above standard strength, and let the spirit keep its identity.
Blackadder recommends it two ways: as an outstanding cocktail base, or neat over ice, where the lava-filtered water and the higher strength are easiest to appreciate.
On Tasting Notes
You will not find Blackadder's tasting notes here. By design.
Blackadder shares every technical detail a curious drinker could ask for: where the spirit was made, who made it, its strength, and what was (and was not) done to it before bottling. Everything that makes the liquid what it is. What they leave to you is the experience of drinking it.
Tasting notes shape expectation. They tell you what you should find before you find it. Blackadder's position is that the spirit in your glass should speak for itself, and what you find there belongs to you. Pour it cold and neat first, before the cocktail. Take your time. The water took thousands of years.
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| Brand | Blackadder International |
| Product | IS Icelandic Vodka |
| Style | Vodka |
| Origin | Reykjavik, Iceland (produced for Blackadder at the Halogi distillery) |
| Water source | Icelandic spring water, naturally filtered through lava fields |
| ABV | 44% |
| Production | Small batch, family owned and run distillery, minimal intervention |
| Availability | Open release |
The Whiskey Lab's Quality Commitments
- Small Batch: Ensuring a unique profile for each release.
- Natural Colour & Non-Chill Filtered: Preserving the authentic character and purity of the spirit.
- Honest Storytelling: Every profile written by people who actually handled the liquid.
