Debowa Wódka Excellent Granate

Debowa Polska distils its vodka in Siedlec, in the heart of western Poland, from grain and clear local water. The base spirit is run through the still several times and then filtered over charcoal, which strips fusel oils and rough edges to leave a clean, soft grain character. What sets the Excellent Granate bottling apart is the strip of oak placed inside the bottle: as the wood sits in contact with the spirit it slowly releases tannins and a faint vanilla-tinged woodiness, so the vodka picks up a trace of the oak the brand is named after without ever being barrel-aged in the usual sense.

The nose is soft and cereal-led, and the palate is mild and gently tart, balanced, with a clear note of wood running underneath. The finish is long and easy. Because the oak gives it more to say than a standard neutral spirit, treat it like a light brown spirit: build a stripped-back Old Fashioned with the Debowa, a small bar-spoon of sugar syrup and two dashes of aromatic bitters over a large block of ice, stirred and finished with an orange twist, so the bitters and citrus oil lift the vodka's own woody edge.