The great vodka con - are you a goose to pay for Grey Goose?

So you want to sell a vodka in the United States. Well here are the rules as laid down by the government in Title 27, Section 5.22 of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Code.

Note that vodka must be distilled or treated until it is, quote, "without distinctive character, aroma, taste or color."

A rule like that does not allow much scope for product differentiation. So is there actually one between Dan Murphy's special at $29 and the Grey Goose at $68?

National Public Radio in the US set its Planet Money team to find out.

Can we make our own premium vodka? We learned that a lot of companies actually buy a vodka concentrate in bulk from a handful of suppliers. Then they just add water. So we've got a hold of a sample, brought it here into the studio... Added some water... And sent it to a lab along with a sample of Grey Goose and a sample of some of the cheapest stuff we could find. A few days later, we got a call from Neva Parker. She's the vice president at White Labs in San Diego. She ran our vodkas through what they call a comprehensive spirits test.
Based on that information, Neva, which of these three vodkas would you suspect should be the cheapest, least-desirable vodka?
NEVA PARKER: If I had to choose based on this analysis alone, I would say number one.

PASHMAN: That was the Grey Goose. And the ultra luxury choice...
PARKER: Number three.
PASHMAN: Number three was the cheap stuff. Now, to be fair, Neva did say the differences in all three samples weren't anything most people were going to taste. She compared the reports.
PARKER: I mean, look at these. They all look very similar as well.
PASHMAN: Very similar - we did talk to Grey Goose. Their global brand ambassador, Joe McCanta, took issue with our test.
JOE MCCANTA: Obviously our product was decanted into another bottle. And when that happens, it kind of compromises, you know, our understanding of any testing that's done on the product afterwards.
PASHMAN: He also argued that the odorless, tasteless law is more about distinguishing true vodka from vodkas that have stuff like fruit and sugar added. Pure vodka is its own category.
MCCANTA: Every vodka within the category will have its own characteristics, which would be largely attributed to the raw materials used to make the spirit or even the process used while distilling the spirit. So yeah, that's definitely our take on it. And that's why - you know, that's why we feel very proud of our process and our ingredients.
PASHMAN: So our one lab didn't detect any tasteful differences even with our homemade vodka. And the law seems pretty clear to us. But Grey Goose insists there is a difference. They also invited us to come have a drink with them. We are willing to continue our research.