Skip to content

Top Navigation

Food & Wine Food & Wine
  • Recipes & Cooking
  • Drinks
  • Travel
  • Holidays & Events
  • News
  • F&W Classic
  • Video
  • Kitchen & Home
  • F&W Pro

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Wine Club
  • Podcast
  • Food & Wine Books this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe Subscribe
Pin FB

Explore Food & Wine

Food & Wine Food & Wine
  • Explore

    Explore

    • F&W Cooks

      F&W Cooks

      Food and Wine presents a new network of food pros delivering the most cookable recipes and delicious ideas online. Read More Next
    • Our 22 Best Crock Pot and Slow-Cooker Recipes

      Our 22 Best Crock Pot and Slow-Cooker Recipes

      Looking to amp up your beef stew but unsure where to start? A slow cooker can can take your comfort food to the next level. Read More Next
    • 50 Affordable Wines You Can Always Trust

      50 Affordable Wines You Can Always Trust

      We’ve assembled a list of 50 of the world’s most reliable, inexpensive wines – bottles that offer amazing quality for their price year in and year out. Read More Next
  • Recipes & Cooking

    Recipes & Cooking

    See All Recipes & Cooking
    • Chicken Recipes
    • Comfort Food Recipes
    • Breakfast & Brunch Recipes
    • Salad Recipes
    • Dessert Recipes
    • Vegetable Recipes
    • Pasta & Noodle Recipes
    • Chefs
    • Meat & Poultry Recipes
    • Soup Recipes
    • Appetizer Recipes
    • Side Dishes
    • Fruit Recipes
    • Seafood Recipes
    • Special Diets
    • Cooking Techniques
    • Steal This Trick
  • Drinks

    Drinks

    See All Drinks
    • Wine
    • Cocktails & Spirits
    • Coffee Drinks & Recipes
    • Juices
    • Beer & Brews
    • Champagne & Sparkling Wine
    • Tea Recipes & Ideas
  • Travel

    Travel

    See All Travel
    • Wine Regions
    • Restaurants
  • Holidays & Events

    Holidays & Events

    See All Holidays & Events
    • Valentine's Day
    • Halloween
    • Passover
    • Hanukkah
    • Christmas
    • Gifts
    • Super Bowl
    • Easter
    • Thanksgiving
    • New Year's Eve
    • Holiday Entertaining
  • News
  • F&W Classic
  • Video
  • Kitchen & Home
  • F&W Pro

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Wine Club
  • Podcast
  • Food & Wine Books this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home Chevron Right
  2. Cocktails & Spirits Chevron Right
  3. Vodka Chevron Right
  4. 11 Essential Vodkas Everyone Should Have in the Liquor Cabinet

11 Essential Vodkas Everyone Should Have in the Liquor Cabinet

By Carey Jones
Updated February 08, 2019
Each product we feature has been independently selected and reviewed by our editorial team. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.
Skip gallery slides
Save FB Tweet
Zu Zubrowka
Credit: Courtesy of Zubrowka
For mixing into dirty martinis, splashing with soda, or spiking up any drink you can think of, vodka is a necessary bottle. And it’s key for entertaining; while some drinkers aren’t partial to gin, say, or tequila, virtually no one has a vodka aversion. But which should you get? Here are eleven bottles to know and try.
Start Slideshow

1 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Tito’s Handmade Vodka

Tito's Handmade Vodka
Credit: Courtesy of Tito's Handmade Vodka

How, exactly, did Tito’s skyrocket from obscurity to ubiquity? The poster child for the American craft spirits movement, Tito’s is now, in many parts of the country, the call vodka of choice. And hey, we’ve got no objections: It’s reasonably priced, made in America from 100 percent corn, and distilled in copper pot stills, giving it a bit of weight. ($19 at wine.com)

1 of 11

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Grey Goose

Grey Goose
Credit: Courtesy of Grey Goose

So popular that its fans often don’t bother with the full name. (“I’ll have a Goose and soda.”) While there are equally tasty vodkas for far less money, the spirit, made in copper stills from a blend of rye, barley, wheat, and corn, is lush and drinkable.  ($36 at wine.com)

2 of 11

3 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Sobieski

Sobieski
Credit: Marie Brizard Wine & Spirits - Americas

Fan of Belvedere? We’d steer you toward a less expensive, equally tasty Polish vodka: Sobieski. Made from Polish Dankowski rye, it’s the best-selling spirit in the vodka-loving nation—silky and smooth on the palate. No big marketing push here; just a fairly priced spirit. ($25 at drizly.com)

3 of 11

Advertisement

4 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Aylesbury Duck

Aylesbury Duck
Credit: Courtesy of Aylesbury Duck

The 86 Company creates spirits especially for bartenders, and their Aylesbury Duck has taken off in the mixology community—distilled from Canadian winter wheat, it’s clean and bright with hints of grain and spice. Above all else, it’s mixable (which is, after all, the whole idea).  ($26 at totalwine.com)

4 of 11

5 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Luksusowa

Luksusowa
Credit: Courtesy of Luksusowa

It’s a common misconception that vodka is made from potatoes. And it can be, though it’s more often distilled from grain. The best-value potato vodka brand? That’d be the Polish-made Luksusowa, rich and warming with a hint of sweetness. ($28 at drizly.com)

5 of 11

6 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Ketel One

Ketel One
Credit: Courtesy of Ketel One

One of the true vodka heavyweights, Ketel One only dates back to 1983, but it’s produced by the Nolet Distillery—a family-owned business in the Netherlands since 1691. Along with Grey Goose, the wheat-based vodka is an absolute bar staple, often called for by name. ($29 at wine.com)

6 of 11

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

7 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Russian Standard Vodka

Russian Standard Vodka
Credit: Courtesy of Russian Standard Vodka

When you think vodka, you think Russia, right? Here’s the best-selling premium vodka in the country, distilled from winter rye. Clean, crisp, and easy-drinking. ($32 at totalwine.com)

7 of 11

8 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Stolichnaya

Stolichnaya
Credit: Courtesy of Stolichnaya

A classic, made from wheat and rye and then quadruple-distilled. A solid value and very mixable—the preferred vodka of many a bartender. ($27 at wine.com)

8 of 11

9 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Reyka

Reyka
Credit: Courtesy of Reyka

When a bottle of vodka gets up to the $50-60 range, odds are you’re paying for marketing. Unlike whiskey or Cognac, vodka doesn’t go through an expensive, time-intensive aging process; the spirit is intended to be crisp, clean, and easy-drinking. We adore Icelandic-made Reyka, a great value at around $20/bottle, as pure and easy-drinking as they come. ($30 at reservebar.com)

9 of 11

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

10 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Absolut Elyx

Absolut Elyx
Credit: Courtesy of Absolut

Absolut’s high-end vodka is like catnip to bartenders. (Their branding doesn’t hurt. Ever seen a cocktail served in a copper pineapple? Absolut Elyx is inside, guaranteed.) Made from estate-grown Swedish winter wheat in a 1920s copper still, and bottled at a slightly higher proof than most vodkas (42 percent, rather than 40), it’s rich and weighty, smooth enough to drink on its own, and killer in martinis. Or any other way you’d like to mix it. ($47 at wine.com)

10 of 11

11 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

ZU Zubrówka Bison Grass Vodka

Zu Zubrowka
Credit: Courtesy of Zubrowka

And now, for something completely different. Vodka is, by definition, virtually flavorless. ZU is anything but—the bison grass flavor is complex and grassy, a little spicy, with a strong nose of vanilla. Mix it with apple cider, as they drink it in Poland, or play around with it in cocktails. But whatever you do, don’t call it a flavored vodka. ($30 at caskers.com)

11 of 11

Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By Carey Jones

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook
Trending Videos
Advertisement
Skip slide summaries

Everything in This Slideshow

Advertisement

View All

1 of 11 Tito’s Handmade Vodka
2 of 11 Grey Goose
3 of 11 Sobieski
4 of 11 Aylesbury Duck
5 of 11 Luksusowa
6 of 11 Ketel One
7 of 11 Russian Standard Vodka
8 of 11 Stolichnaya
9 of 11 Reyka
10 of 11 Absolut Elyx
11 of 11 ZU Zubrówka Bison Grass Vodka

Share options

Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Login

Food & Wine

Magazines & More

Learn More

  • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
  • Books from Food & Wine
  • Contact Us
  • Media Kit
  • Content Licensing

Connect

Follow Us
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Other Meredith Sites

Other Meredith Sites

  • 4 Your Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Allrecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • All People Quilt this link opens in a new tab
  • Better Homes & Gardens this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Insights this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Surveys this link opens in a new tab
  • Cooking Light this link opens in a new tab
  • Daily Paws this link opens in a new tab
  • EatingWell this link opens in a new tab
  • Eat This, Not That this link opens in a new tab
  • Entertainment Weekly this link opens in a new tab
  • Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Hello Giggles this link opens in a new tab
  • Instyle this link opens in a new tab
  • Martha Stewart this link opens in a new tab
  • Midwest Living this link opens in a new tab
  • More this link opens in a new tab
  • MyRecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • MyWedding this link opens in a new tab
  • My Food and Family this link opens in a new tab
  • MyLife this link opens in a new tab
  • Parenting this link opens in a new tab
  • Parents this link opens in a new tab
  • People this link opens in a new tab
  • People en Español this link opens in a new tab
  • Rachael Ray Magazine this link opens in a new tab
  • Real Simple this link opens in a new tab
  • Ser Padres this link opens in a new tab
  • Shape this link opens in a new tab
  • Siempre Mujer this link opens in a new tab
  • Southern Living this link opens in a new tab
  • SwearBy this link opens in a new tab
  • Travel & Leisure this link opens in a new tab
Meredith Food & Wine is part of the Meredith Corporation Allrecipes Food Group. © Copyright 2021 Meredith Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
© Copyright . All rights reserved. Printed from https://www.foodandwine.com

View image

11 Essential Vodkas Everyone Should Have in the Liquor Cabinet
this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.