One does not inhale vodka’s bouquet, though one may use vodka to sterilize a wound on the knee.
Vodka is as simple as it is clear. Making it requires minimal technology. Aging does not improve it. Any difference in quality comes from the purity of the water and the alcohol, and from the manner and amount of filtration. Vodka is mostly produced from neutral grain spirits, and the less color, odor, and taste it has, the purer it is. There is little room for pretense.
Vodka, in fact, is the perfect drink for Russians, a species that takes great pride in the weeklong bender, the loss of recollection that can absolve one of dreadful deeds, the smell of bread—a traditional chaser to the shots that can become impossible to calculate. This is the land that abstinence forgot. And no, Russians don’t go in for flavored vodkas—popular in the West, but here considered a precious conception.
(pictured: dark rum & 7)
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