Vodka has been undergoing a quiet revolution in recent years. While all eyes have been on gin, vodka producers have changed their focus. Where much noise was previously made about the number of times a vodka was distilled and filtered – removing a lot of the character from the spirit – today, the focus is on the raw material used to make it, and maintaining some of that character.
‘The skill with vodka is retaining the impurities, or characteristics, from the raw material while achieving a purity,’ says Chris Baldwin, market manager UK/Europe and brand ambassador for Crystal Head Vodka. So what are the raw materials that are used to make vodka, and what characteristics do they produce?
Vodka can be made from anything that can be used to make alcohol – namely, ingredients that contain starch and sugars. The vast majority are made from cereals and potatoes.
How vodka is made 
KirstyBlack,Arbikie Master Distiller. Credit: Abertay University / PA
By its very definition, vodka is a neutral distilled spirit. The raw ingredient is first fermented to create a low-alcohol liquid known as a wash. This wash is then run through a column still – a still that is run continuously and causes multiple evaporations and condensations of the liquid – which produces a spirit of roughly 95% alcohol by volume (abv). Some producers then use water to carefully reduce the abv of the liquid to around 50%, and put
