GOOD DRINKING © with Gael Arthur It's like your favourite bartender periodically putting a new drink in front of you and asking your opinion. In our case, periodically is about every three minutes and we are getting a bit confused with what we have tasted and which one we liked best. We try to decide which ones we didn’t really like, but that proves even more difficult.

Three hours of tasting vodkas was enough to warrant changing the editorial content of this April-May
Hot and Cold “Good Drinking” spot of Worldrover. While the photo on our index page might hint at wines, Good Drinking implies anything that you like to drink.

In the world of spirits, vodka ranks right up there with the consumer. But how to distinguish between the scores of choices of something that is supposed to be an odourless, colourless spirit (ignoring, for a moment, the flavoured and infused versions)?

The invitation from the University of Vodka had all the right stuff – classic Kiwi humour, as the University is “a solely owned department of 42 BELOW Vodka, anyone saying otherwise is a damn liar!”

“Leading professionals all agree a Bachelor of Vodkaology is the best way to advance your career.”
Already I am motivated to attend this tongue-in-cheek promotion of the new kid on the premium vodka block.

The venue is ideal, heck it is even on a bus route! Arriving mid-afternoon at Ginger 62, a stylish Vancouver bar that doesn’t open until much, much later, this collection of bar people and writers looked a bit out of place to start.

A new take on a Moscow Mule helped normalize things, with the fascinating aroma of manuka honey infused vodka providing a very civilized way to start the afternoon.

But soon, to work – sidling up to the bar, with each place stacked with shot glasses and tumblers, it was clear we had some serious work ahead of us.

It’s one thing to sit down in front of 6 or ten wines, a very different thing to sit down to ten glasses, facing some of the biggest names in vodka.

Thankfully, we are in no immediate danger – this is not a blind tasting and we won’t have to reveal our preferences.

You have to hand it to a vodka producer that has the guts to pour samples of their competitors, talk about their origins and strengths, and letting you see exactly how their product stands up against the biggest and best. Do any of the big guys do this?

Of course, it takes guts to start making vodka in your garage about as far away from Poland and Russia as you can imagine, and decide to sell it at twice the price of the majority of vodkas on the market.

We run through the Russians and the Poles, move to Finland and Sweden and Holland, think a bit about rye versus potato versus wheat, sniffing and sipping (no spit buckets here, so sipping starts off quite judiciously).

We taste the vodka of some of the best marketers in the world before moving to the next level, all the while picking up differences in texture that are so clear when the spirit is presented all on its own, at room temperature, stripped of fruit juices, tonic or even olive or lemon zest adornment.

This is an informal tasting, as we are entertained with stories about vodka over the centuries amidst the tasting. Russian monks getting too close to Italian popes, the introduction of potatoes to the process, the role of politics, Lenin dropping the alcohol content, Stalin raising it, how a vodka with Russian name made it in Cold War America, all lovely little tidbits that are absorbed as readily as the alcohol seeping into the system.

We move to the premium vodkas, including Grey Goose, Ketel One, Chopin and Belvedere, and learn a bit about the difference between a vodka made in 48 hours and one that takes four to six weeks. We are definitely in a different class, and it is considerably easier for me to imagine stashing a bottle of one of these in the freezer than the Absolut or Smirnoff that dominate liquor store shelf space.

What makes the premium spirits different? Well, they taste smoother, less hot, less abrasive, more rounded, textured, fuller in the mouth, have a longer pleasant finish (as opposed to that medicinal burning thing) and have discernible characteristics.

While Belvedere is a rye-based spirit, Chopin, its sister product boasts hand harvested organic potatoes, some 3 or 4 kilos to make every bottle. That hand harvesting makes us roll our eyes a little, as it sounds too much like those lovingly hand harvested cabernet sauvignon of the $150 California variety, but there isn’t a glimmer or irony or humour in the delivery, it’s just part of the story.

Chopin wasn’t my favourite, but it did, along with Grey Goose, with its combination of four grains (corn, barley, wheat and rye), make it into the top three. (Hmm, my top three are all made from different raw ingredients, what does that mean?)

Are the boys at 42 BELOW so confident of their product that they don’t mind having you taste their competition? Or are they more confident that we will all be completely charmed by their presentation and professional non-sales approach to selling their product? Or, do they figure that our taste buds will be blown by the harshness of a couple of their competitors, so 42 BELOW will seem smooth and voluptuous by comparison?

Who knows? Who cares? All I know is that by the time we get to the “regular” 42 BELOW, we are all favourably impressed.

The heat or “bite” with which some of the other spirits attack the nose and palate is noticeably absent, so that there is an almost sweet feel to the vodka.

And a nice long finish, without the numbing effect that many straight alcohols deliver. I go back to a few of the other vodkas to confirm that palate fatigue has not jaded my assessment: I like this vodka.

The boys move into high gear, now presenting the three flavoured 42 BELOW, starting with passion fruit. It’s got a nose on it that makes you think of eau-de-vie, intense, but not cloying.

I could have simply sat and smelled it for a while, but as I saw the smile spread over the face of my colleague to the left, I figured I ought to give it a taste. It does not disappoint.

Oops, no time to linger, it’s time for the feijoa vodka next, with a sample of the fruit to pass around and a few New Zealand stories about feijoas and childhood (hmm, a bit like Canadian crab-apples stolen from the neighbour’s yard). Perhaps a bit more of an acquired taste, this vodka is more intriguing than the orange, lemon and cranberry flavours that have flooded the market.

And finally, the new flavour, manuka honey.

It’s a delight to taste the manuka honey vodka on its own – while the cocktail a couple of hours before was tasty, the elegance of the product was subdued by the ginger beer and lime. Manuka honey is another typically New Zealand thing, its medicinal properties as lauded as its flavour. This is an interesting vodka, one that you can imagine sipping straight before dinner.

But you might never get there, as there are so many cocktails to try first. The boys move into high speed, concocting drink after drink. They are not bartenders cut from the Tom Cruise cloth; rather, they are just guys who are out having fun, mixing up a bunch of drinks. Just what you would like your favourite bartender to be like, periodically putting a new drinking front of you and asking your opinion.

In our case, periodically is about every three minutes and we are getting a bit confused with what we have tasted and which one we liked best. We try to decide which ones we didn’t really like, but that proves even more difficult.

Then, for something completely different. out comes South Gin. The makers of 42 BELOW also have a gin – New Zealand’s only gin (of course), made from nine fresh botanicals, including the usual suspects of juniper and coriander, but a couple of exclusively New Zealand additives (manuka again, and Kawa Kawa) to give it a distinctive flavour.

Not a surprise, we start off with a couple of versions of gin and tonic. The superior, by far, is a “muddled” one, where the limes are given a good muddling at the bottom of the glass with a lovely wooden bat-like implement (a bit like the end of a French rolling pin, but a bit smaller) – the flavours have a zip and zest that makes you want more.

The good news is that before we can start helping ourselves to extra helpings of our favourites, it’s time to go, with the three hours among the most educational time I have spent in a bar in recent memory.

And now, inspired to learn more, I start looking at web sites, for individual brands, which all seem painfully similar – is there only one culture? They each seem to have lovely photos of martini glasses and bottles and a lot of music. Reassuringly, they also offer a myriad of great recipes for cocktails (the 42 BELOW site is particularly good, offering concoctions created by bartenders all over the world, with appropriate credit).

www.42below.co.nz
www.chopinvodka.com
www.greygoosevodka.com

For great history about vodka (that can keep you distracted from all kinds of things you were supposed to be working on), check both
www.ivodka.com and www.ginvodka.org

Gael Arthur

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