I had a Grey Goose sorbet once. It was awesome. But I don't know if that was the vodka that did it. Made an excellent palate cleanser between the pork and scallops(ew) and the ...huhn. I don't recall the next course. Cousin's wedding. Probably the classiest, fanciest meal I've had, ever. And I remember the pork and scallops (ew) and sorbet only. I'll blame the cold meds I was on at the time.

Smooth, nearly flavorless.

OK, I'll admit I'm not a vodka drinker. But why does flavorless=good? I like flavor (hi, scotch drinker. Stinky=good in that case.) Alcohol delivery device?

French vodka made from grapes. I'm a little bit of a purist - vodka should be made from potatoes - but not militant about it and certainly not enough to turn up my nose at anything not tuber derived. But the French are good at so many foods and drinks, why they gotta take vodka and win awards all over the place, too? And if you've got grapes, why would you want to distill all the flavor out of them instead of making wine or brandy or grape jelly? It troubles me.

GG is pretty damn smooth, which is, in my experience, what you pay for with premium vodkas. Mostly matters if you are drinking it unmixed, but it does make a difference even with mixers. Whether that's enough of a difference to justify the price differential depends entirely on your palate - I know I can be perfectly happy with well vodka in a lot of drinks, and I'd rather have Belvedere or Chopin if I'm going premium (I'll sometimes order that Van Gogh stuff because I think the bottles are really pretty, but it's not memorable).

Juliana introduced me to 3 Olive Cherry Vodka, for lo she is evil.

But why does flavorless=good?

I dunno. Bad vodka taste bad, but once it's premium, they're all good, IMO.

But why does flavorless=good?

It's good like water tastes good - clean and crispand unfussy.

Vodka does mean little water, right?

So, er...what's your niece been up to, Narrator?

It wasn't my niece I was worried about, although she's put a pea in her ear. Then there was my youngest sister who as a toddler used to shove a penny up her nose; another sister shot a needle through her thumb, and another whose accepted a fellow 7 year-old's dare to lick a fence pole in the middle of winter and got her tongue stuck, another who .... well, you get the idea. Licking tape just didn't sound that un-childlike to me.

That sounds familiar, Jesse. And I agree, once you get into the premiums, none of them are stinkers.

The ones that come in plastic bottles and foam up when you shake them? Literally stink. Nastiness.

Voda means water in czech (popular bottled water is dobra [dobre?] voda=good water) , so it is certainly a slavic derivative. God, now I'm flashing back to dinner in the USSR the first night and filling my water glass from the carafe (every one else, including the natives, did as well) and practically spewing all over the entire 10 ft table after a gulp of what I quickly discovered was vodka. I was barely 16 and didn't drink.

I like my water with flavor, too. Actually, being back in LC made me realize that maybe I had been long accustomed to water having flavor. The water definitely had a flavor- much as if someone had mixed baking soda in it. Lime. Lotsa lime (kills water heaters and dishwashers.) I'm now more used to a slight sulfur (only smell it if you boil stagnant water) and iron flavor that is B'more's water. G'boro was heavy on the chlorine, which I hated.