HOW TO TASTE VODKA
This tasting with Master Blender, Chris Montana will open your eyes and palate to what vodka can be. It doesn’t matter where your palate is coming from, if you drink booze, you’ve got an educated palate. And that’s all you need!
Video Transcript
Chris: We’re here with a nice glass, maybe one finger of vodka but I’ll probably be pouring more. So cheers!
Cole: Cheers!
Cole: For so many people, when you taste, the smell is the first step of tasting it. Do you feel strongly that you should smell a vodka?
Chris: Yes, but you have to give it a minute though.
I like that [Glen Cairn glass] for a vodka tasting and for many spirit tastings, anything that’s higher proof. They can be a little problematic if you drink right away because the shape of the glass, kind of points, it concentrates.
And if you were to take a nice big whiff right after pouring it, after a couple of those, you’re just going to burn up your nose and you’re not going to be able to taste much. So, usually I find when I have those glasses I’ll blow into it or something to try to dissipate that ethanol.
I think that vodka gets a bad rap as far as it’s fungible, they’re all the same. Which is nonsense. There are massive differences between vodkas and the nose is part of it.
The process to create the different types of vodkas that we’re blending together are very different.
It’s not just about the ethanol. It’s about the other things that those spirits bring along with them.
For instance, corn is heavy in oil. The soft grains, wheat and rye have a fairly fast fermentation. That can be good and bad, depending on the yeast you’re using and the other flavors they create. And potato has a frustratingly slow fermentation. But that frustratingly slow fermentation leads to a really clean vodka. So, blending those things together, the oils give you the opportunities to build esters later from the corn. Those fruit notes you get are from the soft grains. And the slightly earthy smoothness you get is from the potato vodka. All together in one glass -- it’s a trip. Something new and entirely different.
There are a number of different things that get created in the fermentation process. So, a brewer’s job is to create alcohol and distillers do that too. But the distillation process is about separating some of those higher and lower volatiles from the ethanol that we want.
When we’re talking about vodka, I don’t think you ever want to take all the life out of it. But there’s no room for error. There’s no room to hide your mistakes.
With vodka, the ethanol should be predominant. There should be no question that it is ethanol in there. You shouldn’t get that front of the tongue burn that you get from methyl alcohol. Or the back of the throat burn that you get from some of the fusel oils that get created in fermentation. Cleanliness and making your distilling cuts with a very sharp knife are crucial to getting the ethanol profile you want.
Cole: Our vodka is really unique in that it’s a 4-grain blend. Something that’s never been done before. Why do you think that is?
Chris: It’s a pain in the ass. It’s really hard.
There are 4 elements in American Vodka and two of them play well together and two of them don’t. The soft grains, the wheat and the rye, are in the same family and do some of the same things. I’m not saying that they taste the same. They don’t. They have different characteristics.
There are huge differences in the soft grains, but nothing like the differences with potatoes and corn.
When you’re trying to blend a high oil content grain like corn and another input like potato that has really defined flavors with another family of grains that also have pronounced flavors, you can end up with a sandwich that has too much going on. Who’s driving the bus?
To get that balance right takes a ton of iteration and a lot of screwing it up and so it’s hard.
So, most people making vodka would say, why would you go through that?
For two reasons. One, because it’s a great showcase of our partner distilleries, what they can do, and the terroir of the different places in the Midwest. So that’s reason enough.
Two, because you want to create something that’s not on the market. If you’re going to put something on the market, it should be unique, it should be your own expression, and so this is something that’s new, that no one’s done, and that’s a damn good reason to do it.
I come at things from a distiller’s perspective and so I’m usually looking for faults.
But no matter where your palate is coming from, if you drink booze, you’ve got an educated palate. And that’s all you need.
Just drink it how you drink it.
Cole: I’ve never let it sit and open up this much and I’m amazed at how much the fruity and floral notes are coming out of it now that it’s aerated a little bit.
Chris: The higher volatiles run first. Take a quick sniff just to see.
Just let it sit, open up a little bit, and then drink how you drink it.
There is that fruit note. And if you take the time to take a sniff, you really do catch that note.
You can get anything from rotten eggs to nothing off a vodka and so fruit is a win.
Cole: That is damn good vodka.
Chris: I do not chill vodka. And I get that some people do. Your tongue isn’t good at tasting frozen things. And it’s really easy to hide bad vodka behind it being super cold.
And you also have to think about what you’re putting in your body.
The mouth feel will be massively different because it thickens up. But some of the things that are just telltale signs of a questionable vodka is not the burn or the ethanol, but you can taste this almost medicinal front-of-mouth burn that hits your tongue right away.
Methyl alcohol isn't good for you. And poorly made vodkas have plenty of it in there. And you ought to know that.
You want to know what you’re putting in your body. Your body metabolizes ethanol into sugar.
Your body metabolizes methyl alcohol into formaldehyde…so let’s not pickle ourselves.
You should know what’s going into your body. You should be able to taste all of the elements of the spirit and decide if you like it on its own. Because if you don’t like it on its own, then why order it in a bar?
There’s some sweetness to it. The sweetness here is a natural phenomenon. But it doesn’t have to be and a lot of vodkas are treated.
There are very few rules for when it comes to what actually makes it into the bottle. You can put glycerin, sugar, or citric acid into vodka and you’re not required to put it on the label.
They put those things in there to smooth it out and hide imperfections. This vodka doesn’t have any of that.
There is nothing added to this vodka. It is just a blend of these 4 inputs and the sweetness is a strong natural characteristic of at least three of the inputs that we put in there. Particularly the corn.
That little bit of sweetness helps to carry the flavor and it really pairs well with the other dominant note which is this berry fruitiness that you get, which is almost like a blackberry or blueberry. It has a little bit of tartness to it.
That fruit note is really fun and it’s kind of unexpected.
We’re used to these vodkas that have been tortured to death to remove all traces of personality so they can be as neutral as possible. So, it’s nice to have those two notes, which I would say are the predominant notes of our vodka. They pair together well and when they finish, you’re left with a kind of high note that’s somewhat tart and fruity.
It has a clean finish. It’s a short, clean, complex vodka.
Cole: The initial taste always reminds me of the smell of freshly cut grass.
That’s not the predominant taste that I pull out of it, but you cannot be wrong in this. What you taste is what you taste.
You can disagree with my tasting notes. You can disagree with Cole’s, but one way or the other, you’re going to have a good experience and you’re going to taste what you’re going to taste.
Cole: There is zero burn. Not on the front, not on the back. It has this beautiful creamy, coats your mouth texture, and it ends really fruity.
Chris: We want the spirit to do the talking and so we strip the water. The water has gone through extensive purification. It is just H2O.
That means when you sip this vodka you’re tasting only the grains from the Midwest and not the minerality of the water.
Some of the things you’re removing are good. Some of the things you’re removing are bad.
There is a point of overdoing it. And when you just keep running it through the still over and over and over, eventually you get something that tastes like nothing.
A vodka that was distilled once is always going to be problematic.
But when you start talking about something that was actually run through that same still maybe ten, eleven times – there ain’t much left.
If you want a vodka that’s going to taste good, then it’s about balance. Too little is not good. Too much is not good.
The same can be said on filtration. You can have a 100% unfiltered vodka and that can work out just fine. I think a little bit of filtration does some good. It also makes for a more stable product.
Figuring out that balance on one grain is a job. Figuring it out on four is madness.
Cole: To sum it up, if we’re talking about tasting what should people do? What should they look for?
Chris: Let it roll over your tongue. Drink it down the way you typically do. And immediately start talking.
Because it’s actually hard to do. It’s hard to get your brain to even start forming the words…what do I taste? A lot of people just say, wow, it just tastes like alcohol. Sure. What else? Just start talking.
It’s easy to start a liquor brand. It’s hard to do it well.
American Liquor is not a marketing company, it’s a vodka company. And it will open people’s eyes to what vodka can be.
I suggest you try it as we have, just that slow sipping. Drink it like water. Enjoy it.
Educate yourself. You owe it to yourself to know what you’re putting in your body. And you owe it to yourself to do that work to figure out if you’re going to be a vodka drinker. Know a couple things about vodka.
Cole: Cheers to that!
Chris: Cheers!