What is vodka?

Vodka starts with ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin: alcohol obtained by fermentation with yeast from potatoes, grains or other agricultural raw materials and then distilled.

According to Article 5 of Regulation (EU) 2019/787, that base alcohol must have at least 96.0% alcohol by volume. Fixed limits apply per hectolitre of alcohol of 100% vol:

• methanol: at most 30 grams
• total acidity, expressed as acetic acid: at most 1.5 grams
• esters, expressed as ethyl acetate: at most 1.3 grams
• aldehydes: at most 0.5 gram
• higher alcohols: at most 0.5 gram
• volatile nitrogenous bases: at most 0.1 gram
• furfural: not detectable

In distilling and rectification, the sensory characteristics of the raw material and the by-products of fermentation are deliberately reduced. For the finished vodka a stricter methanol limit applies than for the base alcohol: at most 10 grams per hectolitre of alcohol of 100% vol.

In the European Union, vodka must contain at least 37.5% alcohol by volume. Category 15 of Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2019/787 lays that down.

For spirits in general, the lower limit is 15%, with egg liqueur as the only exception. Rules on protected designations may be stricter. The product specification of Polska Wodka prescribes, for example, a range of 37.5 to 55%, and for the flavoured variant 37.5 to 70%. That flavoured variant also has a maximum of 100 grams of invert sugar per litre of alcohol of 100% vol.

Colouring is prohibited for vodka and sweetening is allowed only to a very limited extent: the end product contains at most 8 grams of sweeteners per litre, expressed as invert sugar, and only to round off the taste.

Adding flavour is only allowed with natural flavouring substances or flavouring preparations that are already present in the distillate of the fermented raw material. The drink may acquire special sensory properties, as long as no predominant flavour arises. As soon as that does happen, the bottle falls outside category 15 and must be named differently.

Vodka that is not made exclusively from potatoes, grains or both must state prominently on the label from which raw materials the alcohol was produced.

That statement must appear in the same field of vision as the legal name. That way you can see at a glance vodka made from, for example, grapes, whey or sugar beet. The rule stems from the discussion held in the EU in the years before 2008 on whether vodka should only be allowed to be made from grain and potatoes; the compromise became a mandatory statement instead of a ban.

Poland provides the oldest written traces. The word wodka was first recorded in 1405 in a court document, according to the product specification of the protected designation Polska Wodka.

Documents from 1454 show that distilleries were active in Gdansk. Before 1550, distilling was already done on a large scale in Krakow, and in the 1580s the region around Poznan had 49 distilleries. To this day, Polska Wodka requires rye, wheat, barley, oats, triticale or potatoes grown in Poland, and all production steps on Polish territory. In filtration the pore size of the medium may be at most 1 micrometre.

In Nederland geldt NIX18: alcohol wordt niet verkocht aan wie jonger is dan 18 jaar.