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Vodka

From grain and potatoes to your glass

Vodka is the purest of spirits: grain or potatoes, distilled until little but clean alcohol remains, cut with soft water and polished through charcoal. Here is how it is made, step by step, the styles from Polish rye to Nordic wheat and flavoured vodkas, what the rules on the label mean, and how to enjoy it.

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A short history

From ‘little water’ to the world’s bars

Vodka means ‘little water’ in Polish and Russian. Poland and Russia both claim it as their own; it grew up across the whole vodka belt, from Poland and the Baltic to Russia and Scandinavia, first as a medicine, then as the everyday spirit, and in the 20th century it went round the world.

1405The word wódka first appears in writing, in court records of the Sandomierz region in Poland. It then means medicines and lotions made with spirit; the drink itself is called gorzałka, from an old word for ‘to burn’. By 1580 the city of Poznań has 498 distilleries.
1785In St Petersburg, the pharmacist Tobias Lowitz begins his experiments with charcoal, which clears liquids by holding back their impurities. He describes how to purify spirit over a bed of charcoal after distilling, and charcoal filtering becomes the mark of vodka.
1879In Stockholm, Lars Olsson Smith, the ‘king of vodka’, launches Absolut rent brännvin, ‘absolutely pure spirit’. He makes it in rectifying columns, a continuous method he pioneers in Sweden. A century later, in 1979, his idea returns as Absolut.
1890s40% becomes the standard strength for vodka in Russia, Poland and the Baltic, and it still is. The figure is often credited to the chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, but wrongly.
1941In Hollywood, at the Cock ’n’ Bull pub, John G. Martin, whose company had bought Smirnoff in 1939, and the owner Jack Morgan mix vodka with the bar’s ginger beer and lime in a copper mug: the Moscow Mule. It makes vodka fashionable in America, and its rise in the West begins.
1962Liviko in Tallinn makes the first bottle of Viru Valge. Its label shows a hornblower in folk costume, facing west. It becomes Estonia’s best-known vodka and is the country’s oldest vodka brand; today it is made from Estonian grain.

How it’s made

From field to glass: seven steps

Vodka is made by taking away rather than adding: a mash of grain or potatoes is fermented, distilled and rectified to an almost pure spirit, then cut with soft water, filtered and bottled. Its character lies in the base, the water and the care taken at every step.

01
Grain, potatoes & more
Vodka can be made from almost any crop that gives starch or sugar. The classics are grain, above all wheat and rye, and potatoes; in Finland barley is the traditional choice. Grapes, corn, sugar beet and other crops are used too, but in the EU such a vodka must say ‘produced from …’ on its label.
The base leaves a trace even after the spirit is rectified: rye gives a hint of spice and bread, wheat a soft, slightly sweet roundness, potato a creamier, fuller texture. Organic vodkas use grain or potatoes from certified organic farms.
2classic bases, grain and potatoes; any other must be named on the label
02
Mash & ferment
The grain or potatoes are milled or crushed and cooked with water, and enzymes turn their starch into sugar. The result is a sweet mash.
Yeast is added and, over a few days, turns the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The fermented mash, at around 10% alcohol, is ready for the still. A clean fermentation means fewer unwanted flavours to take out later.
≈ 10%alcohol in the fermented mash before distilling
03
Distilled to 96%
Most vodka is made in column stills, often several in a row. In the first, steam strips the alcohol from the mash; in the rectifying columns the spirit is distilled again and again, plate by plate, while the heads, fusel oils and other heavy flavours are drawn off.
The spirit leaves at about 96%, clean and almost neutral. EU rules require the taste of the raw materials to be selectively reduced, and set a stricter limit on methanol for vodka than for ordinary neutral spirit. ‘Distilled five times’ on a label often means five columns.
96%the strength of the spirit when it leaves the columns
04
Soft water
Vodka is mostly water: at 40%, six parts in ten. Distillers use water low in minerals, from deep wells, springs or glaciers, or soften it with filters and reverse osmosis, because hard water would make it cloudy and change its taste.
The 96% spirit is cut with this water slowly, often in stages, and stirred. Vikingfjord uses water from the Jostedal glacier in Norway; Znaps of Sweden, water from an ice-age ridge; Viru Valge, Estonian groundwater prepared for vodka.
60%of a bottle at 40% is water
05
Charcoal filtering
The diluted vodka is then filtered, classically through columns of charcoal, often birch charcoal, which hold back the last traces of oils and round off any sharp edge. Some houses also use quartz sand, or filter over silver, gold or platinum.
Hõbe, ‘silver’ in Estonian, is the silver-filtered vodka of the Viru Valge family: its filtering takes almost three times as long. By EU rules vodka may not be coloured, and may have only a touch of sugar to round the taste.
8 gof sugar per litre at most in vodka, by EU rules
06
Flavoured vodka
Flavoured vodka is a category of its own: vodka given a leading flavour of fruit, berries, herbs or spices, by steeping, by distilling or with natural flavourings. Unlike plain vodka it may be coloured and aged, and sweetened with up to 100 g of sugar per litre; any more, and it becomes a liqueur.
Poland’s classic is bison grass vodka, with a blade of the fragrant grass in every bottle. Pepper, lemon, cranberry, blackcurrant and rhubarb are northern favourites. Znaps of Sweden pairs wheat vodka with berries, rhubarb, pear or mango and ginger.
< 100 gof sugar per litre in a flavoured vodka; more makes a liqueur
07
Rest & bottle
Before bottling, the vodka usually rests for a few days so that spirit and water settle together. Its strength is checked, adjusted with a little water if needed, and it is filtered one last time.
In the EU vodka must be at least 37.5%; most are bottled at 40%, some stronger. A good vodka is crystal clear and bright, and what sets one apart is its texture and a whisper of its base.
37.5%the minimum strength for vodka in the EU

Styles

Eight styles of vodka

A vodka’s character comes from its base and its home. Here are the main styles, with the names you will meet on the label.

Rye

Spicy, full and slightly dry, with a hint of rye bread: the traditional vodka of Poland. Best tasted neat and cold, where the grain can show.

Wheat

Soft, round and gently sweet, with a clean finish: the base of most Swedish vodkas and of many Russian ones. On our shelves: Znaps of Sweden, from Swedish winter wheat.

Potato

Creamier and fuller in the mouth, with an earthy sweetness. Poland and Norway are known for it, and potato vodka costs more to make than grain vodka. On our shelves: Vikingfjord, from Norwegian potatoes and glacier water.

Nordic

Clean and crisp, made from wheat, barley or potatoes grown in the short northern summer, with soft Nordic water. Sweden, Finland and Norway each protect their own name: Svensk Vodka, Vodka of Finland, Norwegian vodka.

Estonian & Baltic

Grain vodkas with a long tradition and a soft, clean taste. Viru Valge, made by Liviko since 1962, is Estonia’s best-known; Hõbe is its silver-filtered premium. On our shelves: both, and the flavoured Viru Valge.

Grape & other bases

Vodkas from grapes, corn, sugar beet or other crops, often softer or a touch sweeter. In the EU the label must say what they are made from, as in ‘produced from grapes’.

Flavoured

From lemon and blackcurrant to rhubarb, berries or mango and ginger, at 37.5% or more, dry or lightly sweet. On our shelves: the Znaps of Sweden flavours and Viru Valge Naturally Flavoured.

Bison grass & herbal

Vodkas steeped with herbs. Poland’s bison grass vodka, with a blade of grass in the bottle, smells of hay and vanilla; in Poland it is often mixed with apple juice. Pepper and other herbal vodkas belong here too.

The rules

What the label means

In Europe, what may be called vodka is set by EU Regulation 2019/787 on spirit drinks, and the vodka countries protect their own names on top. The headline rules, simplified:

Vodka

EU spirit drinks rules, category 15

At least 37.5% alcohol
Made from spirit of agricultural origin, distilled or rectified so that the taste of the raw materials is selectively reduced
Methanol at most 10 g per hectolitre of pure alcohol
May be filtered with charcoal; no colouring; at most 8 g of sugar per litre
If not made only from grain and/or potatoes: ‘produced from …’ on the label

Flavoured vodka

EU category 31

At least 37.5% alcohol
Vodka given a leading flavour other than that of its raw materials
May be sweetened, blended, flavoured, matured or coloured
Less than 100 g of sugar per litre; with more it is a liqueur
May be named after its flavour, as in ‘lemon vodka’

Protected names

Geographical indications

Polska Wódka or Polish Vodka: from rye, wheat, barley, oats, triticale or potatoes grown in Poland, every step in Poland; plain vodka with nothing added but water
Estonian vodka: from rye, wheat and/or potatoes grown in Estonia, with soft Estonian water
Svensk Vodka or Swedish Vodka: Swedish raw materials and water, blended in Sweden
Vodka of Finland: often from barley, grown in the short Nordic summer
Bison grass vodka from the North Podlasie Lowland, in Poland

Reading the label

Names and words

‘Produced from …’: the base, when it is not grain or potatoes
‘Distilled 5×’ or ‘multi-column’: usually the number of columns
‘Charcoal filtered’, ‘silver filtered’: how it was polished
Flavoured: the flavour comes first, as in ‘rhubarb vodka’
Organic: raw materials from certified organic farming

A simplified summary of the EU rules and of the protected-name specifications, which go into more detail. Outside the EU the rules differ: in the United States, for instance, vodka must be bottled at 40% or more.

Words to know

A short vodka glossary

Wódka, vodka: Polish and Russian for ‘little water’, from the word for water.
Rectification: Distilling again and again in a column, to a pure, high-strength spirit.
Neutral spirit: Spirit rectified to at least 96%: the base of vodka, and of gin and many liqueurs.
Column still: A tall still with plates inside that distils without stopping; vodka often uses several in a row.
Fusel oils: Heavier alcohols with a harsh taste, drawn off in the columns and held back by charcoal.
Charcoal: Often from birch: the filter that polishes vodka and rounds off its edge.
Soft water: Water low in minerals, natural or treated, that keeps vodka clear and clean.
Bison grass: A fragrant wild grass of the Polish forests, with a scent of hay and vanilla.
Zakąski: Small bites served with vodka in Poland: pickles, herring, rye bread. Zakuski in Russian.
Na zdrowie: ‘To your health’: the Polish toast.

How to taste

Five ways to enjoy vodka

The glassA small shot glass for ice-cold vodka with food; a small tulip glass, or a white-wine glass, to taste a fine vodka slowly, where its aromas can gather.
TemperatureCool, not frozen, for tasting: from the fridge, the texture and the base show. Straight from the freezer vodka turns thick and smooth but tastes of very little: the way it is often poured with food.
Nose & tasteLook for texture first: silky, oily or crisp. Then the trace of the base: rye spice and bread, the softness and gentle sweetness of wheat, the creaminess of potato. A good vodka finishes clean, with no burn.
At the tableVodka is made for food: pickled cucumbers and herring, smoked fish, caviar and blini, rye bread and cold cuts. In Poland and the Baltic it is drunk in one go after a toast, followed by a bite.
In cocktailsIts clean taste makes it the base of many classics: the Moscow Mule, the Bloody Mary, the Screwdriver, the vodka Martini, the Cosmopolitan and the Espresso Martini. Flavoured vodkas are at their best with tonic or soda and ice.

Looking for a vodka for a party, a cocktail evening or a gift? Come and see us at the shop: we’re happy to help you choose.

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In our shop

Vodka on our shelves

Estonia’s classic Viru Valge and its silver-filtered Hõbe, Vikingfjord potato vodka from Norway, and Znaps of Sweden, from organic wheat vodka to fruit and berry flavours. Collect them at the shop or get free local delivery.