Stumbras Premium Organic Vodka won the highest honor at the New York World Spirits Competition this year.

During the early part of the year, a group of expert judges gathered in a common Brooklyn hotel conference center to evaluate the quality of various types of spirits. These evaluations were part of the yearly New York World Wine & Spirits Competition which has quickly become one of the city’s top tasting events despite its relative newness.

Our blog has spent substantial time covering the highest-rated whiskeys from the competition, which included several unexpected results all well worth exploring for any fan of aged spirits. Now, we turn our attentions to vodka. A major question that comes up: how does one establish the quality of a spirit that is supposed to be flavorless?

Interestingly enough, while vodka isn’t exactly flavorless, it is frequently mistaken for neutral grain spirit, a wide multiformity. And an outdated one as well. Vodka isn’t necessarily made from grain at all. It can be distilled from a variety of resources like vegetables, fruit, honey, starches etc. with numerous examples proving it needn’t be devoid of taste or scent. If you’re skeptical about this, it may be worthwhile to try the very drink that the New York Wine & Spirits Competition declared the best of 2023: Stumbras Premium Organic Vodka.

The first organic vodka to ever come out of Lithuania is crafted according to strict parameters of production. It begins its life as wheat grown on an organic farm, deep in the heart of the Baltic nation. After distillation, the liquid passes through a proprietary linen-based filtration. This process is said to imbue the vodka with its notable smoothness and subtle viscosity.

You can debate whether or not there’s some element of gimmick to be found there. But what’s certain is that the wheat at its core imparts a pleasing sweetness upon the palate. It carries through, into the aftertaste, where you’re left to ponder the lingering nuance of this flavor. Yes, flavor—in vodka.

And, to be clear, we’re not talking about flavored vodka. In fact, Stumbras specializes in one of those as well. Namely, a cranberry variant, which was also recognized by the judges in New York for its exceptional bitter notes. The company has the craft pretty well dialed-in after over 115 years of getting the job done.

You can find its award-winning organic expression on American shelves rather easily, priced at around $20 per bottle. The aforementioned subtleties of its tasting profile marks it as a natural fit against tonic or soda, served over rocks. Especially if you’re going to add lemon or lime into the mix, with the tart and bitter elements of citrus balancing out all things sweet from the wheat in the vodka.

Or do the unthinkable: try the 80-proof spirit neat. Maybe you’ll be able to call out some of the same grassy aromatics in the liquid that won over those contest judges back in Brooklyn. Perhaps you, too, will call it one of the more interesting vodka on shelves today. But what you won’t be able to do is call it flavorless.

LITHUANIA – NOVEMBER 25: Mill, Open air ethnographic museum, Rumsiskes, Dzukija, Lithuania. (Photo … [+]. by DeAgostini/Getty Images)