What is a Good Vodka

I recently had a question from someone who tasted our Spirit of Santa Fe Vodka and commented on its light taste and aroma. I responded with the following description of our vodka and our commitment to making a high quality spirit.

Our Spirit of Santa Vodka is not made to be like the hundreds of others that line liquor store shelves. While some believe that vodka should be odorless and tasteless, by Eastern European standards this is considered traits of the lowest quality vodkas.

What makes a good vodka is the balance between the alcohol and its grain base…more importantly how this balance feels in your mouth and throat after a drink. Many vodkas are made from only fermented sugar and water. Without a grain base these vodkas render very uncomfortable drinking experiences. In Ukraine, where Olha our master distiller learned her craft, wheat based vodkas are considered the highest quality and appreciated on very sophisticated levels.

We separate methanol from ethanol during distillation. Others who either don’t know how to remove the toxic methanol or would rather not be constrained by this slow distillation process, filter the vodka after distillation. Unfortunately, filtering also strips out taste and aroma.

Our distillation process removes the methanol first and then allows us to concentrate on creating that just right balance between alcohol and the grain base – creating the right feel while allowing the grain’s character to provide a proper structure. People who drink our vodkas recognize right away the pleasant feeling on the mouth and throat that does not burn.

While our Spirit of Santa Fe wheat based vodka is nothing like tequila, the one thing we share in common with a well made tequila is that both provide a pleasant drinking experience that simply does not exist in most commercial spirits. I believe there are two reasons that we share this trait; first both our Spirit of Santa Fe Vodka and well made Tequilas are distilled at high elevation which has a huge impact on the quality of the spirit produced. Second, both distilling processes depend on a slow cook-off that carefully controls the balance and character of the final spirit.