Belvedere Pink Grapefruit Vodka

This past Wednesday, I was invited to a launch party for Belvedere Vodka’s latest flavored maceration vodka, Pink Grapefruit. Held in what appeared to be a very new events space — I could still smell the paint — the event allowed a few dozen food and beverage writers to be plied with a constant stream of vodka-themed drinks, activities and food pairings.

My first beverage of the evening was called the Pink Grapefruit and Fever Tree Tonic cocktail, served by a bevy of models with the evening free, while we waited for the main event. While that big wedge of pink grapefruit provided a wealth of grapefruit flavor, the tonic did a fine job of overwhelming the subtle pink grapefruit in the vodka. I’m here to taste the new vodka, not tonic!

Soon after polishing off that drink, I was invited to join Belvedere’s mixologist and master distiller, Claire Smith, for the Art of Blending, really the highlight of the night. Of course the product line received its due: Belvedere distills its vodka from rye (it’s 4x distilled), and far from being a neutral spirit, it takes on a bit of flavor just from the distilling process. They use this base vodka to create a whole line of maceration vodkas, and will rightfully point out that they’re one of the few outfits (two percent of all fruit vodka distillers, by their estimates) that use this process rather than the cheap “natural and artificial flavors” route. Basically, each fruit used in the creation of the finished product is soaked in vodka for several weeks, allowing the vodka “distillate” to take on the flavor of the fruit. There’s no added sugar or anything else.

At least at this stage we had a sample of the featured vodka, neat, so that the flavors could be discerned without the noise of the mixers and fruit slices and whatnot. The subtle pink grapefruit nose carries a punch in the taste, and while I disagree in principle with the statement that having fruit already in the vodka helps the bartender or host save a step in mixing drinks, it’s rather an interesting spirit on its own. The setup in the picture above was my Li’l Scientist kit, put to good use when…

… we were asked to try to recreate the recipe for the Pink Grapefruit vodka, or make something even better! Here’s where the fun began. The pink grapefruit vodka is comprised of a (proprietary) blend of pink grapefruit, ginger, and lemon distillates, obviously heavy on the pink grapefruit, with the others there to “bring out” some of the nuances. So we were given the opportunity to make horrible blends of these three flavors — and boy, did I succeed in that endeavor. It’s amazing how, for example, more than a few drops of French ginger vodka distillate rendered any sample I tried to make undrinkable. As I mentioned there, Claire’s job is safe.

After failing misaerably in vodka-blending class, I returned to the original space for the food pairings with “new” vodka cocktails.

This was sashimi, with a slice of tomato and avocado puree. So dainty, and so overwhelmed by the sweetness in that glass. You’d think the citrus would be allowed out to play with the tomato, but you’d be incorrect.

In the meantime, I’d picked up a Mini Pink Grapefruit Snow Cone: described as ginger sugar, zest oil, and a grapefruit wedge over crushed ice, this drink proved more along the lines of showcasing the vodka. The grapefruit wedge seemed to be coated in the ginger sugar, which meant less of that to interfere with the vodka. Here the alcohol heat carried a wisp of pink grapefruit pith, and while it was plenty strong, I enjoyed sipping this.

The tea-smoked duck with a watercress-and-pine-nut pesto dollop was tasty enough to eat a few times — the models really wanted us to polish off all the extras so they could move on, I guess — and frankly, the pairing, with vermouth, chocolate bitters, and plum sake added to the vodka… well, it was even sweeter than the first food-paired cocktail. The chocolate did match nicely with the hints of citrus that managed to poke through, until the plum sake drowned it out.

Finally, because dessert is always fun, a white chocolate and coffee mousse was paired with a cocktail that was not, in fact sweet. It was pink grapefruit vodka, to be sure, but the alcohol aroma and flavor dominated. I appreciated that it dried out my palate, and as with any cocktail that showed off the flavor of the vodka I approved, but as a match for the mousse… it was interesting, to say the least.

I finished my imbibing for the evening with a Pink Grapefruit Ramos Fizz: here, the vodka was paired with passion fruit syrup and campari, and shaken with egg whites. I definitely got a frothy beverage from the egg whites, and, well, I do like passion fruit, so the fact that this cocktail tasted virtually exclusively of passion fruit did not detract. But it sadly did not showcase the vodka. As a fun drink, however, and a way to showcase your bartender’s talent, it certainly did its job.

Overall, although I am not a huge spirits person (my name isn’t BoozeBoor, after all), this type of event worked with me. I appreciate the effort Belvedere put forth to teach that one, not all fruit vodkas are created equal, and two, it’s hard work concocting a tasty vodka. I do wish the cocktails pointed up the flavor of the macerated fruit, but as the gift bag included a 200ml bottle of the new vodka, I can sip this on my own time to my heart’s content. The Pink Grapefruit vodka landed in stores in New York City this week, so if you’re a fan of pink grapefruit, a trip may be in order!