Received for Review: Ketel One

Et tu Brutus?

There are not many things that I blog about more infrequently than vodka.  This is my third and by far my favorite vodka review because I didn't pay for it.  I did have to drive out to the Fed Ex facility by the airport Saturday morning to pick it up.  It was fun making the GPS re-calibrate.  Head east on Weber, no.  Head east on Hudson, hell no.

Good news Columbus Business Travelers, I drove past a place named Centerfold's and they have a free shuttle service.  So we have that going for us.

Here's the review.  It is vodka, so it tastes like alcohol, which I assume is the goal.  I actually think that it tastes a little sweet.  The great thing that it has going for it is the finish.  There isn't one.  I'm doing a side by side with another vodka, rhyme's with Tito's handmade vodka.  Definitely cleaner.  The internet tells me that it retails in the $20-25 range, which is a good thing.  Only a dumb ass would drop big money on vodka.

Watershed Vodka

What is the watershed?  If you have been following the blog for a while, you know that the watershed is where people used to beat their kids back in ye-olden-times before Wal-Mart existed.

To the vodka.  Clean, crisp with citrus notes.  It is a good vodka.  I'm a whiskey guy, so that's about as high a praise as I can give.

In honor of their location in Grandview, and the fact that I've been getting the same haircut in the same barber shop for 20 years, I give you the....

Howards Barber Shop Martini

1/4 oz Cocchi Vermouth Americano

2 oz Watershed Vodka

Lemon Twist (rim the glass with the lemon oil before dropping in)

For the old time Ohio State Alumni who may run across this.  I know that Howards was in UA for-damn-near-ever.  OSU bought their building and basically told them that they could stay for the length of their lease, but there would be a fence blocking their parking lot.  OH-FU.  They promptly moved to 5th and Grandview.

Barrels? We don't need no stinking barrels. Part 3: Our honor defend, we'll fight to the end for OYO?

OK.  We have a white whiskey that admits that it's a white whiskey (scroll down two posts.).  A white whiskey perfuming itself up to be gin (one post down).  And now we got a white whiskey claiming to be vodka?

The first time that I tasted this vodka, I thought that it was a nice mash bill for a whiskey.  I'm quite happy that I'm going to get my wish.  The wheat whiskey is due out this month. 

This is not the "vodka" for your typical cranberry and spread legs cocktail.  You should drink it neat and appreciate it.  It's made from 100% Ohio winter wheat.  Which was only 2 pts worse then Kentucky winter wheat this year.  This is what happens if you don't triple distill the life and joy out of... well, life.