In my 5-day Workshops, I repeatedly mention that Vodka lends itself to some brief exposure to wood. I cite the example of the walnut rested Vodka I recently had from Poland.

Recently whilst on the Queen Mary 2, I made another fortuitous discovery – Chase’s Vodka from Herefordshire, England that has been exposed to an ex-Islay Scotch cask. Not sure how long the Vodka rested in the cask, but the notes of the Islay Scotch sing through in beautiful harmony. Well done !

Craft distillers in Canada – take note. The market is being flooded with craft distilled Vodka. Craft distillers are resorting to utter nonsense in many cases by claiming their product is distilled 16 times etc….all in an effort to lure in the naive consumer. A perfect case in point, in my opinion, is that of Big Rig distilling in Alberta.

I say skip the nonsense. Get busy crafting some uniqueness into craft Vodka. How about exposing some Vodka to apple wood or cherry wood ? What about Pecan wood? Get ex-Scotch barrels from a few different regions of Scotland. Have a go at that. Think outside the box. Give the consumer something to really savor…..

Take a page from the team at Chase Distillery.