Galileo famously said that, “Wine is sunlight held together by water…” Master distillers and wine-makers go through excruciating lengths to bottle the characteristics of their local terroir in the drinks that they soulfully craft. Soil, sun, wind and water – terroir is perfectly understood in the production of wines, whiskies and cognacs (to name but a few), however, vodka is defined by the absence of these characteristics. The logic persists that the more vodka is refined, the more “smooth” and luxurious it will become. In fact, the definition of vodka in both the United States and the European Union declares that it must be “a neutral spirit” at least four times distilled “without distinctive character, aroma, taste or colour”.
While the rest of the “ultra-luxury vodka” sector has sought to outdo each other with their number of distillations and filtrations, the owner of Chopin Vodka, Mr. Tadeusz Dorda, has embraced the natural flavours of his ingredients and is driven by a passion to understand how terroir can be reflected through his vodka, in the spirit of the great wine-makers and distillers of other noble spirits. Completely rejecting the legal definitions of vodka, Mr. Dorda works as a one-man lobby against this restrictive understanding of the drink. He bottles as much of the flavour that nature has graced upon the ingredients in his terroir, crafting luxury vodkas that are rich in character, aroma, taste, and sometimes colour – but never neutral.
Chopin Vodka is a boutique family-owned craft distillery that produces artisanal wheat, rye and potato vodkas in the pristine Podlasie district of Poland – a region famous for its natural bounty. Mr. Dorda explains that, while travelling and presenting tastings of Chopin Vodka in the USA and throughout the world, he wanted to find a better way communicate the differences between the tasting notes of the ingredients of these three vodkas to a public audience who could not always perceive them. Mr. Dorda instructed his Master Distiller, Mr. Waldemar Durakiewicz, to produce a special batch of vodkas from each of the three ingredients – distilling the vodkas only one time, instead of the regular four times. The logic was, if the spirits were less distilled then there would be much more flavour remaining from the individual ingredients, which would illustrate the differences between them. When Mr. Dorda introduced these specially distilled spirits to his audiences they were surprised by how well they could taste the differences between the ingredients, often declaring that they preferred the single distilled spirits to the more distilled vodkas.
From this humble starting place, Tadeusz Dorda embraced this new direction in distillation and began a journey into understanding how to make the most interesting single-distilled vodkas that he could. Frustrate by the conscious neglect of terroir and flavour in the vodka industry, Mr. Dorda decided to rebel against the ultra-distilled definition of luxury vodka and did something that nobody else was doing – he restored flavour and character to the drink. Revisiting the knowledge of the 14th and 15th century pioneers of wines and spirits, and the great master distillers of the past, he began to study the effects of seasonal change, ingredient variety, weather patterns, altitude and traditional practices on the flavour of his vodkas. The Chopin SINGLES line of spirits – with wheat, rye, young potato, and late harvest potato varieties – is the manifestation of a decade of exploration into single-distilled vodkas, and the starting place of a new direction for the luxury vodka sector.
As Chopin Vodka is most passionate about distilling potatoes, Dorda began to experiment with different varieties of potatoes. Once again, on a whim, he asked Durakiewicz to make a vodka out of young potatoes, as opposed to the late harvest potatoes that have always been used to make vodka. Although Mr. Durakiewicz was convinced that young potatoes couldn’t be used to produce vodka because the starch levels were too low, Dorda insisted on the distillation and the experiment proceeded. The result was a spirit which is rich in character and body, possessing distinctive sweet floral notes from the younger starches. The 2009 Młody Ziemniak vodka (Polish for ‘young potato’), the first of its kind, became a hit in Poland, with the annual limited edition bottles being coveted by connoisseurs to the point of cult status. There is now a waiting list to purchase these bottles as only a handful of cases are produced each year. Sold under the Chopin Vodka label ‘SINGLES’ in the USA, one of the most interesting features of these spirits (they can’t be called vodkas because they are not four-times distilled, as required by the legal definitions of vodka in the USA and the EU!) is that the flavours change from year to year depending upon the seasonal characteristics of the terroir. As such, there are distinctively different tasting notes between the annual distillations.
Another remarkable feature of the once-distilled spirits from Chopin Vodka is that they taste better when served at room temperature. The normal custom for drinking luxury vodkas has been that they be served frozen, where the spirit is typically swallowed in one shot or hidden inside of a cocktail. Because the flavour of single distilled spirits is complex and engaging, connoisseurs now sip their vodkas at room temperature, appreciating the flavour of the ingredients and the quality of its production. Is it strong? Yes – a bit, but the flavours are vibrant and delicate. The world’s first sipping vodka!
This year, many countries of the world, including Poland, have been impacted by a significant shortfall in their potato harvests owing to uncharacteristic weather patterns. While a 20% reduction in the 2015 Polish potato harvest has certainly has had an effect on the Chopin Vodka distillery, it hasn’t been a disaster; this is the nature of terroir – some years Mother Nature gives us a greater bounty than others.
The owner if the Chopin distillery is not interested in producing as much potato vodka as is possible, he is interested in producing the most interesting, highest quality potato vodkas as is possible. The relationship that exists between the distillery and the local potato farmers in the very small town of Krzesk goes back decades. An understanding exists between the distillery and its production partners about what quality of ingredients is required to create Chopin’s Vodkas and the company remains loyal to this symbiosis in spite of possible restraints on production. The capacity of the Chopin Vodka distillery is limited by natural and human factors – this ensures the quality of the vodka and keeps it grounded in tradition. Mr. Dorda has no intention of changing this scale. While other vodka manufacturers strive to scale up production and leverage distribution, Mr. Dorda prides himself on small-batch production; he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Sipping vodkas with seasonal tasting notes may not be for everybody, but that’s the point; not everybody understands what’s special about Keith Jarrett, Ferran Adria or Joseph Beuys. Chopin’s distillations are exceptionally interesting artisanal spirits which attracts exceptionally interesting people.
