The marketers of top-selling vodka brands will tell you that their spirits are "clean," "smooth" or "pure." And, even though some brands will note that they're made from the very finest winter wheat, grapes, etc., there is nary a description of what the vodka actually tastes like.

That's not surprising because, by law, vodka is an odorless, colorless, tasteless spirit.

Because of that I've never given much thought to what differentiates one from another. I considered vodka to be a mundane, but necessary, ingredient in cocktails, at best, and an efficient means to get drunk, at worst.

That is, until I discovered that some distillers weren't content to produce a spirit that is little more than a commodity.

"We're trying to challenge the norm," says Kent Fleischmann, founder of Dry Fly Distilling Inc. "We want to raise the bar on vodka and produce something memorable that keeps people coming back again and again."

Dry Fly isn't alone. A number of distilleries are producing hand-crafted vodkas that are not the same colorless, flavorless spirit of yesteryear. These aren't flavored vodkas, which often taste synthetic or saccharine.

Rather they are spirits produced by distillers seeking to highlight the primary ingredient. And because vodka can be made from nearly anything — from wheat to rye to corn to potato — the ingredient used to produce a particular vodka gives that spirit its personality.

Take Dry Fly, whose vodka is made from locally produced wheat, which gives the spirit a sweet flavor.

"We're in wheat country," says Fleischmann, whose distillery is based in Spokane, Wash. "We have beautiful resources. That's why we utilize only local ingredients. It just makes perfect sense. Why would we use anything else?"

Try 'em

Dry Fly Distilling Vodka: Produced from wheat, the spirit has a sweet vanilla aroma. The spirit has a buttery mouth-feel with hints of vanilla, butterscotch and cream soda.

Koval Distilling Vodka: Produced from rye, the spirit has a sweet smell reminiscent of banana bread. The vodka has hints of ripe bananas and vanilla.

Ed Phillips & Sons Prairie Organic Vodka: Produced from corn, the vodka has an aroma hinting of pear and melon. It has a creamy mouth-feel, with traces of melon and roasted corn.