Our original plan with the First Annual Russian Life Vodka Taste-Off was to include several exotic and wonderful vodkas from Russia in our tasting of international vodkas. But this plan was scotched by the Vermont Liquor Control Department, which does not allow any alcohol to be served in a licensed facility unless that liquor is purchased through a State Liquor Store. And none of the newer Russian vodkas are yet available through this channel. Since we had decided to offer a tasting of fine Russian food as well as vodka (at the New England Culinary Institute's Montpelier restaurant, The Chef's Table), we took the ruling in stride. This would be a tasting some of the best vodkas available in the US.

We purchased 16 premium vodkas originating in eight countries, including Russia. All are "top-shelf" vodkas that are among the best vodkas from their respective countries, though we mixed in some lesser-known brands to spice things up a bit. All should be available nationwide in the US. These 16 (see table) were the subjects of our Vermont Taste-Off.

This brings us to the knotty question of how one tastes vodka. By definition (provided by the US Bureau of Tobacco and Firearms), vodka is "neutral spirits without distinctive character, aroma, taste or color." So, in theory, one could say we were tasting for tastelessness. But we rejected this theory in designing the event. And the feedback from participants in the Taste-Off bore this out. There were wide differences between vodkas in the tasters' collective perceptions of character, aroma and taste. Some vodkas were perceived to be patently smoother or creamier than others (usually a preferred sensation), while others were felt to be much harsher, or more medicinal in character. Everyone had their own, built-in rating biases for scoring their vodkas, but by combining together the scores of over 30 independently-minded judges, we hoped to arrive at a fairly authentic polling.

The Taste-Off was completely "blind." All the vodkas were poured in a closed room, then disguised by cloth napkins and paper bags, with each brand being signified only by a Russian letter. The vodka was served slightly cooled, rather than "frozen" as is the Russian custom, so that more of the natural flavors and aromas of the vodkas could come through.

The first round of the tasting was "open" -- the 32 attendees at our tasting/dinner blind-tasted and scored six to eight different vodkas each, rating each on a scale of 1-6. The point here was to get many palates involved in this informal tasting, to arrive at a collective perception of reality, if you will. Each of the 16 vodkas was tasted by at least nine and no more than 12 different persons. There was a wide assortment of appetizers (zakuski) and breads on hand for palate cleansing.

Scores were tallied to arrive at each vodka's average score in this first round (see rankings). The eight vodkas with the lowest scores were eliminated from further competition and revealed to the participants. The elimination of several brands, notably Skyy and Smirnoff, brought cries of disbelief -- but then palates do not lie...

The eight [still unknown] vodkas with the highest scores progressed to our "medal round," presided over by our distinguished panel of six judges (whose palates were given an intermission by way of a wonderful Russian meal, followed by a short presentation by noted cookbook author and language professor Darra Goldstein, on the culture of Russian vodka). The six judges included a journalist, academics, a politician, a chef and an author -- but vodka enthusiasts all.

In the medal round, the scoring system was the same as the open round. The six judges blind-tasted each of the eight vodkas two at a time (for better comparison's sake). They individually assigned the vodkas a score of 1-6 and once again the average score of each vodka was tabulated to determine the ranking (see table).

But, when the results were tallied, we had a tie between two vodkas. A sudden-death taste-off was arranged. One judge (Darra Goldstein) was drawn from the panel and two judges from the audience; each was given samples of both vodkas to taste. By a vote of 2-1, the vodka which turned out to be Ketel defeated the vodka that was Grey Goose.

Thus, the Gold Medalist in the Russian Life First Annual Vodka Taste-Off was Ketel Vodka, from Holland. Grey Goose, from France, walked away with the Silver, while Absolut received the Bronze Medal.

In addition to the fact that no vodka from one of the countries (Poland or Russia) claiming to have invented the stuff was a medalist, some interesting conclusions arose from the collective palates of those present:

• Potato vodkas (Teton Glacier and Luksusowa), long considered inferior by afficionados, were scored quite low.
• Five of the seven American vodkas competing were eliminated in the first round.
• The Russian favorite, Stolichnaya, proved its muscle as the "people's choice" vodka by pulling the highest average in the open round, yet it placed eighth in the medal round.
• Gold medalist Ketel barely squeaked into the medal round, besting 9th place Skyy by just seven-hundredths of a point average.
• America's best-selling vodka, Absolut, barely medaled by beating out the oddly-named MiG-Pilot (actually distilled in Vermont), also by just seven-hundredths of a point.
• The British underdog Red Bear made a surprising showing, placing 7th in front of market leaders like Stolichnaya, Smirnoff and Finlandia.
• Price seemed to have little if any relation to taste preferences: The expensive Teton Glacier ranked last in the overall results, while the very inexpensive MiG Pilot placed fourth in the medal round and Red Bear polled second in the open round.

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