Vodka sales may continue to climb inexorably, but it’s clear that premium and super-premium vodkas are not attracting the attention of the bartending fraternity like they used to. The exotic claims of an ever-growing number of new brands are increasingly being received with scepticism, even cynicism by the people who pour it: organic blah, multiple distillations, water from the Garden of Eden, filtered through screaming virgins – whatever. Particularly when the claims rarely match up to what’s in the bottle and everyone knows it’s made in a factory in Scotland.

But there’s one category that is experiencing a surge of interest, and that’s vodkas from Eastern Europe.

Authenticity counts

A key reason for this is the growing demand among trade and consumers alike for drinks (and food) with provenance, authenticity and character, and where better to look for this than in the vodka heartlands of Eastern Europe? Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, countries where vodka has always been the national drink, embedded in the lifestyle and culture of each and every citizen.

But it’s also about taste, marking the great divide between those who seek purity at any cost, and those who want character. Western vodka-producing countries, where vodka is seen primarily as a neutral, alcoholic hit in cocktails, have gone down the purity route – in both the US and EU legal definitions of vodka are as being without ‘distinctive character, aroma, taste or colour’.

In Eastern Europe, where vodka is drunk neat to celebrate social occasions and as an accompaniment to food, the tendency is to preserve the positive characteristics produced by the raw material and the distillation process, so that their vodkas are more interesting.

No wonder, then, that brands from countries with centuries-old vodka distilling expertise and a long-standing vodka culture find it easier to grab the attention of barkeeps always on the look-out for ways to upsell. After all, it’s far better to be able to tell a bit of a story when you’re persuading customers to upgrade to a £30 martini. As Giuseppe Gallo of The Sanderson Hotel’s Purple Bar explains: ‘Our customers are very interested in traditional vodkas and want to find out more.
‘It’s not about price,’ he continues. ‘Probably the best vodka we have here is Jewel of Russia Ultra, which we sell for £13 a shot in a glass with a huge chunk of carved ice, Japanese style. It’s exceptional vodka, a connoisseur’s vodka. Another popular vodka is Russian Standard – a great product and great value.’

Since it arrived in the UK last year, Russian Standard has been mano a mano with Stolichnaya, making a vigorous claim to be ‘The’ Russian vodka – an assertion it’s backing with a £10m marketing campaign. At the same time, Stoli has embarked on a multi-million pound, global ad campaign drawing heavily on bold Constructivist imagery designed to reinforce its connection with key events in Russian history. Even more recently, another Russian vodka, Flagship, has started making a fair amount of noise, not to mention other newcomers including Etalon from Belarus, Nemiroff from Ukraine, Snow Queen from Kazaksthan, Akvinta from Croatia… the list goes on.

Eastern european cool

Another key factor in Eastern European vodka’s rise is the expansion of the EU and the opening up of trade borders, which has meant that many vodkas that were previously insider secrets are now more easily available in the UK. And what’s more, these brands are increasingly backed up with some pretty heavyweight marketing support.

But it’s also about image. Eastern European vodka is cool because, all of a sudden, Eastern Europe is cool. How we perceive the former Soviet empire has changed entirely. Pictures of Russian President Putin, all glistening torso and looking a bit of a babe, circulate the world. London is awash with Russian millionaires and their glamorous girlfriends buying up the best bits (including major football clubs), and, as the splashy opening of Divo in Piccadilly proved late last year, some very glitzy Ukranians. The influx of Poles, meanwhile, has made Polish grocery stores an increasingly common sight on London High Streets, as a new generation of classy Polish bars and restaurants help to woo a notoriously sceptical British palate.

All that spooky Cold War mistrust is over: one thing we’ve all learned about Eastern Europeans is that they are just like us. They’ve embraced rampant consumerism, the religion of the West, wholeheartedly.

Cultural exchange

And now they’re everywhere - the person serving your Starbucks is as likely to be from Belarus as from Birmingham. And don’t even go there on Polish plumbers. It’s a two-way thing as many countries that seemed remote and inaccessible such as Lithuania and Bulgaria are now a weekend squeezyjet hop away.

There’s more to it than just a new familiarity. Nowadays many of the trends in fashion, music and the arts are coming from formerly totalitarian states where there is a genuine spirit of freedom and exploration. Choosing vodka has always been based on style and image to a certain extent. Ironically enough, when it comes to promoting their national spirit, the Eastern Bloc countries, once the country cousins of Europe, seemed to have turned this around to their advantage.