It’s been just over two months now that I launched my Turning Vodka Into Whisky experiment. I am sure some of you will have already wondered what happened to the bottle.

As you can see from the picture, the vodsky has now taken on a nice golden color. During maturation I turned the bottle every now and then and also opened the screwcap – not at the same time, mind you – to allow better interaction between spirit, wood and air.

And now the moment that I have been eagerly anticipating for all those weeks has finally come: The first sample of my homemade vodsky.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Bright gold
Nose: Still rather grainy with hints of lemon zest and vanilla.
Palate: Vanilla, honey, hints of lemon and cinnamon.
Finish: Medium long and slightly sweet.
Overall: The spirit has clearly taken on some bourbon characteristics. It is still quite mild, but it’s a lot more flavoursome than the original vodka. Actually it tastes pretty decent, worthy of a 70+ score. You could already sneak it into a blind tasting and it would probably be guessed to be a mild NAS blend.

I will continue to mature the vodsky for at least two more months to see how much of the flavouring was actually caused by the interaction with the wood and not just by the diffusion of the whiskey that was still soaked into the chips.

Read on how the fully matured Vodsky turned out.