“Beluga and Lalique are offering collectors around the world a chance to acquire precious and miraculous objet d’art embedded with a unique heritage and craftsmanship,” “With the Epicure II decanter, we explore the art of living, a way of making a moment eternal through simple, beautiful moments and objects that give shape to life.”
Comments Marc Larminaux, artistic and creative director of Lalique.
Made with grain from the Baltics, the vodka is crafted along the Adriatic Riviera in Montenegro. The vodka was rested for 100 days before bottling. The decanter, inspired by water, is crafted at the Lalique crystal atelier in Alsace using the hot glassblowing technique, passing through ten specialised workshops to achieve its final form. Each decanter is hand engraved with a unique serial number, making it a remarkable collector’s item worthy of the finest Beluga vodka.
A Waste-Not-Want-Not collaboration between a distillery with its own wormery in London’s East End, a former Drinks Businesswoman of the Year and a Portuguese olive farmer has resulted in an “elevated drinks experience” in the form of the first Olive Oil Vodka.
Haggerston-based 58 and CO is a multi-award-winning, independent, sustainable distillery founded by TV cocktail expert Carmen O’Neal who has partnered with Citizens of Soil to create the latest disruptive spirit and cocktail ingredient.
The daughter of an aromatherapist, Canadian-born O’Neal worked as a make-up artist and image consultant as well as a shoe designer.
“My footwear company was just about to go into production when I got run over by a lorry. The side of my body and my hand were crushed.”
Now she is crushing olives.
58 and CO is the UK’s first female-founded alcohol brand to be awarded B Corp status. Sustainability is at the heart of the brand, from the recycled glass bottles and labels made from discarded grape skins to stills powered by solar panels and plastic waste that gets made into coasters. The CO-LAB Series celebrates sustainability by rescuing excess by products. A Shochu that has been created in collaboration with the UK’s first sake brewery, KANPAI.
“I love creating something that people enjoy and brings people together. Something that has people laughing and having fun.”
The name of her company comes from the 58 recipes it took to get the gin right. The range now includes London Dry Gin. Apple & Hibiscus Pink Gin and Navy Strength Gin. The ‘house’ product is sold in three-litre refillable pouches.
To make an Olive Oil Dirty Martini you need 60ml of 58 and CO, The CO-LAB Series Olive Oil Vodka and 5ml Dry Vermouth. Simply measure the Olive Oil Vodka and Vermouth into a cocktail mixing glass filled with ice and stir until ice cold. Then strain the contents into a chilled coupe glass and finish with 5 drops of distilled Extra Virgin Olive Oil and garnish with a green olive
Using surplus grain spirit five-times distilled and charcoal filtered, Respirited Vodka claims to be “the best vodka in the world and the best vodka for the world.”
The best American vodkas remain St George Spirits, Maine’s Cold River, Leopold’s, Utah’s High West 7000 and Philadelphia Distilling’s The Bay Seasoned Vodka infused with traditional Chesapeake Bay seasoning.
Disruptive infusions are not just a gin trope. Flavoured vodkas are catching up fast and the latest is podka. The UK’s Manchester-based spirits distributor Ten Locks’ new planet-positive own vodka brand is made with 100% British peas: Pod Pea Vodka. Nadar is another pea vodka. Peas are an incredibly sustainable crop fixing nitrogen into the soil they grow in, which reduces the need for nitrogen-rich fertilizers and lowers cost in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. The vodka is bottled in transition glass, which is glass before it is turned into flint (clear glass). Skipping this step in the processing allows for less waste. Each bottle varies slightly and has little imperfections. Just like peas. The veggie vodka is the fruit of three years of trial and experimentation. Other ingredients include sea kelp and asparagus.
Russian and Polish vodka lovers must be shaking their educated potato heads at what the Brits are up to with their vodkas. Kent’s Chapel Down, UK’s leading wine maker, diversified into spirits with a Chardonnay Vodka.
Perhaps the most English of modern British vodkas is made with Earl Grey tea. Cambridgeshire’s T.E.A. (Tea Enhanced Alcohol) also makes Jasmine Vodka. In Cornwall, the Colwith family produces “Aval Dor” Cornish potato and a rose and hibiscus vodka. There is also Tarquin’s Connie Glaze Sand Filtered Vodka. In the Channel Islands, Jersey Mash is made from Jersey potatoes. Black Lion is made from the whey of pure sheep’s milk by Tim and Tanya Spittle. Dorset has the excellent Shanty Seaweed Vodka with its eye-catching bottle.
Sapling Spirits has just launched a Regenerative Vodka. The wheat is grown in Kent, farmed using sustainable techniques and is free from insecticides and fungicides. It is fertilized naturally, creating a closed-loop system that prioritises the health of the land. The entire production process, from farm to bottle, takes place within a one-mile radius, with low-carbon koji fermentation and minimal transportation, ensuring the vodka’s environmental footprint is as small as possible. Ivo Devereux, co-founder of Sapling Spirits, commented:
“Our goal was to create a product that truly highlights sustainable farming practices.”
King of Soho has released new ultra-premium Copacetic Vodka. Co-founder Alex Robson, said:
“Premium vodkas are very much in demand. In the last four years, cocktail consumption has risen by 300% in the UK alone. Half of the top ten most popular cocktails are vodka-based.”
Her co-founder is Howard Raymond, the son of Paul Raymond – the original King Of Soho – who opened his Raymond Revuebar in 1958. The velvet tailoring of the figure on the bottle is a tribute to the area’s fashion heritage whilst the tail of the fox is suggestive of fun and high spirits as well as being a nod to Soho’s distant hunting history. A book and a trumpet reflect the artistic creativity for which this special urban area of the British capital is renowned.
Scotland is represented by “X-Muse”, the first blended barley vodka and the superb Esker Spiced Pear. Wales has Penderyn Distillery’s Five as well as Ewenique Sheep Whey Vodka made by Bryn Perry, Rebecca Morris and a flock of East Friesian ewes in Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire.
French vodkas to try must include Le Philtre, Cobalte made in Ay-Champagne and Maison Villevert organic vodka from the Cognac region.
Eindhoven in the Netherlands boasts perhaps the most unusual and spikiest bottle design, for a first-class vodka.
“The silver chrome details and built in Led makes LOUERS vodka an eye-catcher.”
Says Willem Louers, who began developing the product while studying Technical Business Administration at the Fontys University of Applied Sciences.
There are now also the African-inspired VUSA and the India-influenced Desi Daru. The Faroe Islands have Nykur made from volcanic water filtered through twelve layers of 5.5 million-year-old basalt.
But Poland remains Europe’s top vodka-making country. Its oldest distillery at Lancut (Wine-Suit) was founded in 1784 and was revived in 2003 by ex-banker Jan-Romain Potocki to make ultra-premium rye Potocki Wodka which is not charcoal-filtered. Vodka (from voda, water) has been produced in Poland since the eighth century. Allegedly it increased fertility and awoke lust. Wyborowa (meaning excellent) dates to 1823. Luksusowas to 928. The Polocki recipe goes back to 1816 when Count Alfred 1 Polocku inherited the castle and distillery between Krakow and Lvov. In 1857 the family became purveyor to the Imperial court in Vienna. It is the most aristocratic of European vodkas.
U’Luvka vodka (pronounced ‘you-love-ka’) comes from a distillery which can be traced back to the 16th century. It is housed in a very distinctive curvy bottle. You can even buy a magnum of it!
Author Bio:
Kevin Pilley is a former professional cricketer and chief staff writer of PUNCH magazine. His humour, travel, food and drink work appear worldwide, and he has been published in over 800 titles.
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