Vodka vs neutral?

[fiery creations]

A couple of older posts have me a bit confused. A neutral seems easy to understand. As flavorless as possible. Pure ethanol.


What constitutes a vodka then? I read another post saying something like commercial vodka distilleries may have 40+ plates? Wouldn't that be pretty damn neutral no matter what was fermented? NGS is...grain right?

So can anything be made neutral? If a vodka is something that has a desired flavor, then why would they use dozens of plates to strip it all out?


I'm asking because I'd like to take a stab at both potato vodka and wheat vodka (trying for Grey Goose). But I don't know if I can overdo the plates. If I use all 10 am I likely to strip out so much flavor that all that hard work with potato/wheat was a waste and I may as well just have done Shadys Sugar recipe? I've read things like even a high purity reflux can't get rid of that blackstrap rum taste, so will hints of grain and potato still make it through as well?