March 23--A few weeks ago, I tried a truly remarkable vodka. It was perfectly clear, clean and smooth, with a neutral aroma, and subtle citrus and cream flavors. It was just about everything you'd expect an ultra-premium vodka to be, including expensive. A bottle of it will set you back about $60 or $70.
The vodka is part of a broader trend in which market leaders Diageo's Smirnoff and Pernod Ricard's Absolut, which account for roughly one-fifth of the U.S. vodka market, are losing market share to smaller, often high-priced so-called craft vodkas.
Now, I don't blink an eye when I see that type of price tag on a whiskey or other barrel-aged spirit, but when it comes to vodka, I do. And there's a good reason for that. Federal statutes require vodka to be a spirit "without distinctive character, aroma, taste or color." And while, yes, that vodka I recently had does have a pleasant flavor -- as do many other craft vodkas -- the flavor isn't pronounced. Heck, you might not even notice if you weren't paying attention or, more likely, if the vodka is served chilled (thereby neutralizing the taste) or mixed into a cocktail. That's why I'm reluctant to buy a bottle of that vodka (and why I've refrained from referring to it by name). And I'm not alone.
Head to Billy Sunday in Chicago, and you'll find hundreds of varieties of amaro (the category of Italian bittersweet liqueurs) but just a single vodka. There's a reason for that. While a distiller can put his own mark on a spirit like amaro or whiskey or absinthe, vodka is a really indistinct spirit. Given the category's constraints, vodka producers have to focus on consistency and so-called quality rather than flavor.
"There's a tremendous amount of marketing behind a lot of these ultra-premium products that tell stories about how they're filtered through mountains or cultivated through the hands of an 85-year-old artist," says Lee Zaremba, Billy Sunday's general manager. "But really, all vodka is very similar once you get to a certain point in terms of quality and taste."
That's why Billy Sunday stocks a Polish vodka called Gvori that costs less than half the price of that other vodka for a bigger bottle, 1.75 milliliters. Billy Sunday isn't skimping; it just wants a quality vodka that, like just about any other quality vodka, will disappear into cocktails.
"It's really about what's in the bottle," Zaremba says. "We're not interested in name brands, but rather how it tastes."
Here are four vodkas to try that you can find for $30 or less for a 750-milliliter bottle:
Dry Fly Distilling Vodka: Sweet and creamy, with notes of vanilla and butterscotch. $29.99
Gvori Vodka: Smooth and sweet, with a hint of vanilla. $15.99
Hangar One Vodka: Slightly sweet, with grape and floral notes. $24.99
Prairie Organic Vodka: Gentle and sweet, with hints of dried fruit and sweet cream. $18.99
Zak Stambor is a freelance writer.
