National Culinary Review

The selection of artisanal vodkas grows annually. At the Tales of the Cocktail conference in New Orleans, July 20-24, new brands and styles of mixers for vodka emerged. Vodka offers a wide flavor palette for spicing up the beverage list.

A SIMPLE SPIRIT

Given that vodka comprises 60% water and 40% distillate of grain or produce, producers differentiate themselves by both components.

Vodka Sobieski from Poland touts its
water as “crystalline from Oligocene
springs,” referring to the era 30 million
years ago, a difficult fact to verify. Actor
Bruce Willis, Sobieski brand ambassador/
investor, highlights its unblemished
provenance. “Unlike gin, vodka is so
straightforward—just pure water and
Dankowski rye. No sugar, nothing else.
Sobieski is clean and simple.”
marble, silver, gold and then platinum,
which rounds out the flavors.

Other brands, such as Purity, eschew filtration. After distilling a fermented mash of wheat and barley 34 times at the distillery in Sweden, only 10% of the initial distillate volume remains. Thomas Kuuttanen, Purity’s master blender, notes that the end product has more depth and complexity than most vodka, and is not filtered.

TASTE TEST

Mixologist Tony Abou-Ganim, Kathy Casey of Liquid Kitchen and Kuuttanen hosted the H2O seminar at Tales of the Cocktail. The session started with a tasting of vodka made from potato, grapes and wheat. The potato vodka had a creamier mouthfeel, the grape, a more citrus note, and Purity, from grains, more complexity.

Square One Basil vodka, left, uses organic American rye as its grain. Akvinta vodka is made from organic Italian wheat.

Many large-scale vodka producers use additives to modify the mouthfeel and finish. The Soviets centralized vodka production and employed additives such as sugar and glycerin, but today, Zyr represents a new style of Russian vodka made from wheat and the nontraditional addition of rye—and no additives. Employing high-tech equipment, Zyr undergoes five distillations, nine filtrations and three tastings for a smooth finish.

Abou-Ganim then walked participants through pairing the vodkas with flavored waters. Water is infused with produce, herbs and spices by either steeping overnight or pressurizing with an iSi N2O canister, which yields instant flavor infusion. The H2O cocktails, made with the rule-of-thumb ratio of one part vodka to three parts infused water, retain pure flavors with markedly less sugar than liqueurs, juices and soft drinks.

Wheat vodkas are produced around the world. Recently available in the U.S., Exclusiv vodka is made from winter wheat from Moldova in Eastern Europe.

Akvinta, a recent import from Croatia,
is made from organic Italian wheat
and Dalmatian spring water from an
ecologically unspoiled region near the
Mediterranean. After a triple distillation,
the spirit is filtered with birch charcoal,
The distillate base influenced the pairing
with the infused waters. Purity paired
well with the berry or celery water. Cîroc,
the grape-based vodka, paired well with
pineapple/cilantro water, and potato-
based Karlsson’s Gold matched with the
cucumber/bell-pepper water.

Potato vodka, such as Blue Ice from Idaho spuds, is gaining popularity. Ross Hallett, general manager at Spoonbar at h2hotel, Healdsburg, Calif., stocks Blue Ice for the growing number of customers who have celiac disease or wheat allergies. “Just as we have vegetarian options on the main menu, we want to honor dietary needs at the bar,” says Hallett.