By
George Brozowski
Here
I sit in the heart of the heartland, Cincinnati Ohio, wondering
if there is life here, sort of like NASA ponders the same
question about Mars. Having lived most of my adult life in
Denver and San Francisco I'll bet your next question is; then
what in the hell are you doing in Ohio? Actually I have relatives
here and have been back and forth for many years. Still, it's
a peculiar place when it comes to the spirits world. No, I
don't mean ghosts, I mean hooch.
For
example, you can only buy diluted hard alcohol in the grocery
stores and for the real thing you have to seek out state approved
liquor stores. Yup, they dilute vodka, tequila, bourbon, rum
etc. down to 42 proof or 21% alcohol by volume as compared
to a normal 80 to 100 proof. And, if you are a raging alcoholic
and need to buy diluted booze early on a Sunday morning to
stave off the DT's you're just plumb out of luck because you
couldn't buy it before noon until recently when they changed
it to 10:00 am. And forget about Everclear at 190 proof, it
is not available anywhere in Ohio, not even in liquor stores.
As a matter of fact I just happen to really like fine old
cognacs and all they have anywhere in Ohio are the usual suspects;
Courvoisier, Hennessy, Martell and Remy Martin and no Hine,
Delamain nor Ferrand nor any of the other almost 200 brands.
Just
as I was beginning to despair about my spirit-ual plight in
Ohio, a miracle happened. I was watching the local news and
they just happened to mention in passing that someone was
launching a new vodka that was being produced in Dayton, Ohio
and they were calling it Buckeye Vodka. Well what do you know,
there is life in Ohio after all!! I needed to check this out
personally but first I had to figure out what in the hell
a buckeye was. Turns out it's a tree and also a nickname for
Ohio, the Buckeye state, and the residents of Ohio, Buckeyes
and also the name of Ohio State University collegiate teams.
The name Buckeye comes from the folklore
of Native Americans who noticed that the nut of this tree
resembles the eye of a buck deer, a buck eye. They roasted,
peeled and mashed the buckeye nut which they called Hetuck
into a nutritional meal. The poisonous and bitter taste can
be eliminated by heating and leaching. Poisonous and bitter??
Don't tell me these guys are making Vodka out of Buckeye nuts,
that's totally nuts!
I
found their website and contact information and shot off an
email requesting a visit since they were so close to where
I was staying. Their CEO, Jim Finke, invited me up even after
checking out my columns online. As I pulled up to the building
I noticed the sign out front, Crystal Water Company. It kind
of reminded me of a CIA safe house where what you see is not
necessarily what you'll get. The Spartan reception room was
guarded by a lone woman who looked at me curiously with a
look that indicated she didn't get many visitors. I identified
myself and that I was here to see the CEO and then as an afterthought
inquired if they made vodka here. She laughed a conspiratorial
laugh and finally admitted that they did and motioned for
me to have a seat in the one and only chair that furnished
the entire waiting area. As I sat down I fully expected a
trap door to open beneath me and whisk me away to a dark underground
room where Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 would water board me.
As my imagination was running away with me, Jim walked in
through the front door, greeted me warmly and I was snapped
back to reality.
He
escorted me to the back of the building where I was led into
a complete, sophisticated, modern, ultra-clean, brightly shining
stainless steel distillery. Mighty impressive! Turns out the
Crystal Water Company is right next door and connected to
the distillery via a conveyor belt and hoses that supply the
water for the vodka. And they have been producing ultra pure
water since 1919 and Tom Rambasek who owns and operates that
company is a brother-in-law to brothers Jim and Chris Finke
who run the distillery. It's literally "all in the family".
Their water is softened four times and processed through activated
carbon even before it is distilled.
It
turns out that these guys eschewed the traditional pot still
and opted instead to use a 20 foot tall column still. What's
the difference? Actually, quite a bit and these guys got it
right. The simplest standard distillation device is a pot
still. It consists of a single heated chamber, a long neck
and a vessel to collect the purified alcohol. A pot still
provides one condensation per batch and gives an incomplete
separation, which can be desirable for the flavor of some
distilled beverages like scotch, bourbon and cognac. Distillers
utilizing this device will frequently run their product through
two or three times to purify it and smooth it out a little
more. Vodka on the other hand, According to the U.S. government's
Code of Federal Regulations, is defined as "without distinctive
character, aroma, taste or color." A column still is
a much more apropos device to achieve those results. It is
also known as a fractionating column and as alcohol boils,
condenses, and reboils through the column, the effective number
of distillations greatly increases automatically. And actually
on the Buckeye bottle they claim their product
is distilled 10 times which effectively happens in one pass
through the column still but Jim indicates that they actually
run it through a second time so you do the math. After all
that distillation they filter the final product 4 to 6 times
through activated carbon until they get the desired taste
profile.
Now
here's where the conversation went all CIA again. I asked
him just exactly what do they start with that makes the mash
that they boil? It turns out that it's a top secret proprietary
process that is performed by a third party in a clandestine
location with nameless "gluten free grains". Well,
based on a few clues Jim dropped during our conversation and
some astute investigative work on my part over the Internet,
I am about to displace Julian Assange as the top WikiLeaker.
I am convinced that the Buckeye mash is concocted in the depths
of the Mammoth Cave deep in the heart of the Kentucky backwoods
by a direct descendant of Merlin who utilizes Kentucky's best
known gluten free fried chicken with their 11 secret herbs
and spices and seasoned further by the guano of highly trained
vampire bats that have been trained to fly over the giant
black cauldron and with precise precision drop their secret
ingredient. This process is performed only once a month under
a full moon and immediately loaded into the trunks of 12 black
1932 Ford Coupes with souped up engines and sped at break
neck speed in the dead of night by aspiring NASCAR drivers
to Dayton Ohio and secretly off loaded at the back door of
Buckeye Vodka. See Jim, this is what happens when you keep
secrets from a ranting and raving writer!!
And
now for that all important taste test. Jim is so sure of Buckeye
Vodka that he brings out bottles of Grey Goose, Absolut
and Kettle One to taste against. Now, I have to admit
that I have been to my fair share of distilleries, breweries
and wineries and no one has ever brought out the competition
to taste against, especially more expensive competition. I
first try the Buckeye and as I roll it around
it produces no noticeable ethanol smell as many will do up
front or for that matter any other noticeable aroma. It is
neutral yet full bodied in my mouth with really no discernable
flavors. As I swallow it is very smooth and clear tasting
with no burn. It is really quite good and completely embodies
the definition of vodka, a neutral spirit with no discernable
taste, odor or aroma and, to top that off, it's almost as
smooth as water. Next I try the Absolut and comparatively
speaking it is harsh when swallowed. The Kettle One is better
than the Absolut but not as good as the Buckeye.
The Grey Goose finally gives the Buckeye
a run for its money and I'm willing to bet that in a blind
taste test it would be impossible to pick one out over the
other, they're both that good, however the Buckeye
becomes the clear winner when you consider that the Grey
Goose is about $30.00 per bottle and the Buckeye
is about $19.00. Buckeye wins the taste test
hands down! I took a bottle home and eventually had some over
the rocks and as a straight up martini and this hooch loves
to be embraced by a bit of ice.
Buckeye
just might be the contemporary top dog in a new vodka category
as well as a top contender in a former category, the super
premium category. In the beginning there was just vodka and
then along came ultra-premium vodkas followed by super-premium
vodkas and today with a lingering and raging recession and
super high gas prices along comes a recently created vodka
niche called the affordable luxury category also known as
bargain super premiums. Why pay $30 or $40 for a super premium
vodka when you can get something as good or better for $19?
It's definitely a question the Finke Brothers of Dayton Ohio
have not only answered but done something about. Currently
it's only available in Ohio but it should be coming your way
soon, look for it.
For
more Rants & Raves click
here.
www.buckeyevodka.com/