June 19, 2007
Vodka dispute put back in the bottle
Another update from the frontline of the vodka wars, and the battlefield in Strasbourg is strewn with empty shot glasses, rotten fruit and animal parts. Actually, they are pictures of animal parts, distributed by Polish vodka makers who fear that .
In fact, given that vodka made from offal probably would not sell well, it is unlikely that Tuesday’s vote of the European parliament would lead to such an end. Vodka made from anything other than grain and potatoes will have to say so on the label, though in rather small print on the back.
While this is only the first, rather than decisive second, reading of the directive governments have already reached agreement along the same lines and should rubber-stamp it at this stage.
That is not enough for the purists from Poland, the Baltic states, Finland and Sweden, who make and drink 70 per cent of the EU’s vodka. They wanted any spirit not derived from potatoes and grain not to be called vodka.
Despite the Polish vodka association lining up tableloads of vodka shots before a debate on Monday night, sheer weight of numbers told. MEPs from France and Britain, which produce vodka from molasses and grapes, lined up behind their companies, which include Diageo, maker of Smirnoff, and the Grey Goose brand.
Lesse Lehtinen, a Finnish MEP, said: "It was the vodka belt versus the wine belt with the beer belt inbetween." The beer lovers drank wine in the end. They have already won strict definitions of whisky, grappa, wine, brandy and other spirits. Those opposing a strict vodka definition say its taste does not depend on the raw material used to make it, unlike those others.
As Finnish MEP Alexander Stubb predicted, they fell with their boots on. To thank the Polish government for their pro-vodka stance, Stubb is sending the Kaczynski twins - who hold the offices of president and prime minister in Warsaw - a bottle of vodka in the hope that they will back in return one of his other loves, the European constitution. In fact the defeat, inflicted by a German MEP, Horst Schnellhardt, will probably make the terrible twins even less keen to compromise with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.
