Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/33511
UP Chopin Vodka’s Single Ingredient Collection Grows “We’ve always been known as a potato vodka—that’s our identity,” says Dana Chandler, VP and General Manager of Chopin Vodka, the Polish-distilled brand named for that country’s most celebrated musical son. Potatoes are actually a rather rare raw material in vodka (contrary to popular myth, fewer than one percent of the world’s vodkas are made from spuds), so Chopin already has a head start on exclusivity. But now the brand is opening a whole new chapter—or perhaps “whole new musical movement” would be a better way of putting it—with the introduction of Chopin Rye. The idea of single-ingredient vodkas might seem as obvious as single-varietal wines, but Chopin is the first brand to explore the possibilities. “We’re introducing everyone to the single-ingredient vodka,” Chandler says enthusiastically. Vodka can be made from nearly any fermentable vegetable matter, so in a sense, the earth’s the limit. But Chopin is concentrating on 100-pcercent estate- distilled luxury expressions made from raw materials grown in Podlasie, a bucolic agricultural area known as “the green lungs of Poland.” Currently, Chandler and brand owner Tad Dorda are touring the U.S. doing component tastings for trade (and ultimately for consumers) that demonstrate the significant differences between original Chopin Potato and new Chopin Rye. By pouring only the first distillation of each product, the unique qualities of each are enhanced. “You can really taste the potato, its earthliness” says Chandler; “the smell of the rye is in your face.” The component tastings emphasize one aspect of Chopin that sets it apart from many other luxury vodkas: Chopin makes its own base spirits. “Most luxury vodka brands do not make their base spirit,” notes Chandler; “they buy it from a commercial producer and rectify it. If you don’t make your base / the tasting panel / june 201 1 Chopin brand owner Tad Dorda holds a giant bottle of Chopin Rye, the newest member of the Chopin single- ingredient collection. PHOTO COURTESY OF CHOPIN VODKA