Originally Posted by
gfunkdave
I don't believe there's such an area. Vodka didn't become popular in the US until the 1970s, and then only because of Absolut's marketing efforts saying that vodka leaves you "breathless" - no alcohol on your breath.
The premium vodka brands are essentially marketing inventions. Ukrainian/Polish/Russian brands are homegrown brands from those countries, as far as I know.
My personal favourites are Russian (Stolichnaya) and Polish (Belvedere), but they are as much "marketing inventions" as any other brand. In fact, I don't see how you can differentiate between a brand of
anything by classifying them as either "marketing inventions" or "homegrown brands" -- it's not as if these brands emerged spontaneously from the soil or were the result of divine revelation or something.