Is Starka Whiskey?

[jcskinner]

Starka is a vodka aged in oak in Poland. They've been making it for over 500 years, and age it up to 50 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starka

Could this not be considered whiskey? If not, why not?

[bredman]

There is plenty of Oak Aged Vodka about.

http://its-woodka.de/

We discussed this on another forum and there is no definitive answer. Partly due to the fact that any nation can have it's own whisky production regs, ( e.g. in India you can distill molasses and age it in wood and sell it as whisky ). If it is made from 100% grains and distilled in copper stills ( pot or column ) and aged for at least 2 ( as in the USA ) or 3 ( everywhere else ) years then why not. Starka is infused with herbs after distillation ( iirc ), so probably no, it isn't whisky in anyone's books.

Vodka, it seems, can be made from any ingredient ( grains, potatoes, fruit, molasses ). As far as i can make out what makes vodka vodka is the fact it is distilled many more times than other spirits to a very high abv - neutral spirit.

[jcskinner]

True, different countries have different regulations. I suppose I was wondering if Starka could be considered whiskey here, under Irish or Scottish regulations (apart from the regs on place of distillation, obviously.)
It appears to be grain distilled twice, rather than the usual vodka method of distilling from anything containing sugars umpteen times.
Would the herbal infusion be enough to consider it not whiskey, though? If Bushmills macerated herbs into its malt, would that malt stop being whiskey?