Product: Sobieski Vodka Producer: Destylarnia Sobieski S.A. Approximate Retail Value: $20/bottle Category: Vodka Country of Origin: Poland Reviewer: Jerome D'Angelo The F Words: Flavor – No flavor, like vodka should be. Feel – Smooth but very strong. Finish – Burns its way down.

Rating:

Vodka is not supposed to taste like vanilla and alcohol. It’s not supposed to taste like you ordered a really, really intense Corona. It’s not supposed to say anything in the description of it besides “Vodka.” Okay, maybe it should include something about potatoes or grains or its distilling process or how it’s made in the time-honored tradition of the hard-working simple peoples of some ice-hole village in Eastern Europe.

Enter Sobieski, a Polish vodka not for the meek. If you’re dragged into one of those clubs in Midtown East awash with bridge-and-tunnel trash where you can’t hear yourself think let alone the person you came with, this won’t be the liquor the badly dressed chick sitting next to you and screaming into her cell phone will be ordering. Hers will involve words like “Vanil” or “Kurant.” If you appreciate pure vodka, yours shouldn’t.

Sobieski is in many ways a vodka lover’s vodka. If taken in a shot, it hits the back of your throat a lot like Ketel One does: hard. You’ll feel it whether you bleed vodka or if you’re new to the drinking world. Yet, it’s rather smooth. If you enjoy sipping your vodka on the rocks, you’ll probably enjoy the taste. Probably.

Ketel One drinkers might not be too fond of it. Grey Goose and Belvedere drinkers might be not either. At first taste, it burns with the mercilessness of its namesake, the Polish King Jan III Sobieski. The aftertaste will linger on your tongue and the roof of your mouth for a while, but your sinus will love its newfound ability to work properly. This doesn’t, however, take away from its “drinkability.”

On the plus side, Sobieski is every bit as good as Level, and better than Skyy, in this reviewer’s opinion. As a mixing vodka, Sobieski works great, not only because you’ll taste its sharpness along with the other liquids, but because it’s only $20 a bottle for one liter. You can do a lot worse than that for vodkas of similar quality. A screwdriver made with it is very nice, as is a vodka and cranberry juice. 

According to Drinks International, Sobieski is “the fastest-growing international spirit in the world.” It’s also the seventh-largest premium vodka in the world, according to Impact Databank. The real test, of course, is on your palate. Vodka drinkers will likely think well of it, and economical vodka drinkers will probably love it, but they may still long for a more familiar top-shelf brand.