Spirit Sunday - This week Wisent's Bison Grass Vodka

This week – Wisent's Hunter's Bison Grass vodka. ($35)

Vodka could be the spirit world's biggest misunderstanding. Ask your everyday punter what vodka is they'll likely say a 'tasteless spirit distilled from potatoes', and then add as an afterthought, 'and it's cheap'. In reality, popular vodka is almost always grain-based (just like bourbon, scotch et al.) has a unique flavour of its own, often misunderstood as non-existent.

It is in the spirit of dispelling myths that I have chosen a vodka for this week's review. The hardest thing to get over is probably the potato connection. Yes, it can be made from the world's most popular vegetable, the potato, but considering potatoes were introduced into Europe about 500 years after vodka was first produced it isn't an essential characteristic to quality vodka, in fact often the opposite. The potato helped popularised the drink in the 17^th century, but only because it was cheaper to produce than tradition grain vodka. Sugar beet, grapes, soy bean, rice and corn are also all starting points for different popular vodkas.

A theory as to the popularity of the drink is also based on a myth; that vodka is tasteless, therefore the perfect universal mixer. To get to the truth here you need to make the important distinction between a 'tasteless' product and one with a 'neutral taste'. Vodka is the alcoholic equivalent of a bowl of steamed rice or boiled potatoes, with a unique, albeit not very strong flavour, generally dependent on the qualities of the vodka's key ingredient, water.

At it's core, vodka is pure alcohol watered down in exact ratio with an equally pure water pulled from some glacier, or mountain spring or something. Just as wine grapes have regional variations so to does spring water, it's just more subtle. It's at this point, however, that Bison vodka deviates a little. During its later filtering it's infused with bison grass and similar herbs, altering the colour and emphasising the different flavours.

Bison Vodka is a great place to start if you want to see how diverse the spirit can be without over-spending or turning to a syrupy Absolut flavour. A subtle infusion of herbs gives it the gold-green tinge, and the inclusion in the bottle of a few strands of the root ingredient, bison grass, provides great novelty. Perhaps because it's a product of Poland, part of the so called 'Vodka Belt' of Europe, or maybe because its flavour's stronger than normal it requires a cold temperature to be sipped or shot. I mean very cold. You'll know it's not cold enough because it will make you shudder. Add as much ice as it takes and you'll be far more sure to enjoy it.

Wisent's Bison Vodka rates 3.75 stars.