State of the legal definition of vodka

(Here are some Diageo brand vodkas... only one of these is from the vodka belt though!
Left to right - Smirnoff of USA, Grey Goose of France, Ketel One of The Netherlands, Belvedere of Poland.)

Legal definitions of spirits and other variety of alcohol are all too common in the beverage world. The reality is, there are regulations (sometimes rather strict) on what any type of spirit can be labelled and sold as. The practice is a form of quality and standard reassurance, but it also lends favor to regional and cultural origins of any said spirit. The world's most sold, bought and consumed spirit - vodka - is actually a hot topic of contention around the world.

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Before even jumping into the legality of being branded a vodka, one must consider the origins of vodka. So where did it come from? The historical evidence lends claim to Russia, going back quite a bit earlier than the other contender, Poland. While I tend to lean on the side of Russia, mainly for the sake of my valuing good evidence, I would also have to concede that sometimes these things can be lost to history simply because the language changes over time, and with something such as vodka - translating in both Polish and Russian, to water - there can be a level of ambiguity in regards to what was written, and what was actually meant. Even still, though, there's the fact that not every occurrence has the benefit of being recorded as history. But again, the evidence leans toward Russia, and so do I. However, Belvedere distillery of Poland would disagree with me.

(This is what a vodka martini looks like - which is coincidentally just like what a gin martini looks like as well!)

Vodka likely originated in Russia, but a rich heritage of vodka distillation can be found throughout a collective of Slavic and Nordic countries referred to as the vodka belt. By most account this includes the Baltic states, northern Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, Slovakia, Belarus, Ukraine and of course Russia and Poland. But as we all know, it's distillation has spread far beyond this area. It's also now distilled in Western Europe and the United States. With that spread comes legal definitions from three different major governing bodies; Russia, the European Union and the United States.

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The United States and Russia both have relatively uncontested definitions for vodkas in their regions. However, it should be noted that the definitions laid out by each body don't agree with each other very well. Russia, for example, has had a strict legal definition of vodka for over 100 years, explaining it as a triple distilled neutral grain spirit of 40 % ABV. Meanwhile, in the United States the definition is somewhat more relaxed, denoting that it must be distilled from a grain wash, and made to be taste and odour neutral by some means, such as filtration. Despite that these definitions claim a flavourless vodka, most people who have spent some time with the spirit will disagree with the law in that regard, vodka does have a quite distinct flavor.

The biggest area for contention over vodka's definition, though, comes from the European Union, who not until the past 20 years saw the joining of members from Eastern European countries. The EU states that vodka is a neutral spirit made from some fermented source of agricultural means. With the membership of Eastern states came lobbies to change the legal definition; branding of vodka limited to spirits made with grain, potatoes or molasses, and the idea that vodka should have a stricter regional definition that only encompasses countries of the vodka belt. It isn't too surprising to see that Western European states couldn't get behind the desire to ratify the definitions, but at least one change was finally agreed upon; European vodkas produced by means other than potato, grain or molasses are now labeled as 'Vodka produced with...' Unfortunately for the vodka belt, this was hardly the victory they were looking for.