Here’s another attempt to review vodka! This one, like Tito’s, I first saw in an ad in the Wall Street Journal. The company boasts that their vodka is made in small batches with pure spring water. This is pretty common stuff with premium vodkas. The beverage is manufactured in Poland using a five step distillation process. The 750ml bottle set me back $30 which puts it in the Grey Goose range. The liquor store was running a promotion on the brand the night I stopped in which is what induced me to review this vodka (as opposed to the many others still on my “to review” list).
I have to say that we’ve been very pleasantly surprised with this vodka. The Pravda site claims that using rye grain instead of corn gives their vodka a smoother, more elegant taste. I had not read that before I tasted the vodka so I know the power of suggestion was not at work. The vodka is definitely very smooth and mellow. It doesn’t seem to display any hints of impurities and certainly goes down with a silky finish that puts it at the head of its class. In a straight vodka martini, Pravda was just perfect, probably the best I’ve had to date (sorry Tito and Goose). One minor complaint is the unwieldy bottle. Although its richly adorned with faux glass etchings and is bejeweled, its wide bottom and extremely long neck makes it a pain to store in semi-full freezers. Small irritations aside, Pravda comes with an extremely strong recommendation, particularly to those who prefer their cocktails with more liquor and less mixer…
Very smooth. I did side by side blind taste tests with this vodka and Grey Goose vodka (my favorite). After sampling both drink (mixed with a small amount of Hpnotiq) I found that Pravda was smoother than Grey Goose, but had a higher “burn”.