Spirited fight: vodka war erupts over use of modern recipes

A "vodka war" has broken out in Europe over the definition of the spirit, as British and other groups fight for dominance in a booming world market which is worth around £6.5bn a year.

Finland, Poland, Sweden and other traditional vodka producers around the Baltic want the European Union to insist that only spirits made with traditional ingredients - barley-grain and potato - should be allowed to carry the vodka label.

Pitched against them is a group led by Britain, the Netherlands, France and Austria - and backed by the London-based multinational drinks producer Diageo - which take a more relaxed view of what can go into vodka, for example grapes, beets or citrus fruit.

Heini Alajaaski, 23, a bartender in Kotka, an industrial town near the Russian border, says young drinkers who increasingly see vodka as a popular tipple mixed with fruit juice or sodas care little about what is in it.

"I prefer the Finnish vodka for the taste," she says. For the traditionalists that is the heart of the matter. They argue that vodka's reputation rests on a distinctive flavour and is being undermined by spirits masquerading as the real thing.

"Vodka is a Polish product ... it goes back to the 15th century, that's a fact," says Bugoslaw Sonik, a Polish conservative member of the European Parliament. "Let's not make false history."

Mr Sonik accuses the other camp of double standards - having backed complex rules on the make-up of wines and spirits cherished by older members of the EU, but saying anything goes for the drink held dear by the new entrants from eastern Europe.

"I have heard a lot of hypocrisy," he told the European Parliament in Brussels. "I heard people saying wine has to be made from grapes, but vodka can't be made from a certain product. Just the idea of vodka made of grapes or citrus juice would cause a major upset among Polish people."

Opponents to changing the definition - which states vodka is "a spirit drink produced from ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin" - say using traditions and cultures as reason to impose a narrow vodka definition is just a ploy to shut out other vodka producers. They say that could cause turmoil for the global drinks industry.

"These member states only began to use the name vodka for their products in any significant volumes in the 1970s and they have no prior claim to determine the definition of the word internationally," said Chris Scott-Wilson, a lobbyist for the Vodka Alliance of Europe, which is campaigning to keep a wider definition.

He pointed to British vodkas, such as Smirnoff, which started production in 1952, long before the birth of Swedish Absolut or Finland's Finlandia.