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| Wine & Spirits |
The New Luxury
Anthony Giglio
04/01/2004
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The Birth of Luxury
On the way back from his maiden voyage to Warsaw,
Phillips saw a bottle of Belvedere in the airport and had an epiphany. “I
realized that … the perception of quality vodka would be the challenge [in
the U.S.],” he recalls. “What we realized was that not only are there
differences between vodkas in Poland, but that there are regional distinctions
akin to some of the greatest wine-growing regions in the world.”
This
allusion to winemaking was both clever and controversial. Could a spirit derided
as flavorless, odorless and colorless display regional variations in taste?
Spirits experts were mixed. In The Craft of the Cocktail, DeGroff explains that
vodka is a rectified spirit, which simply means it is distilled at least three
times, “a fact that some brands like to remind us of in their advertisements,”
he muses, making reference to practically every vodka advertisement on the
planet. “The final and very important step in vodka production is filtering the
spirit through charcoal; though some brands claim to use diamond dust, glacial
sand or even quartz crystals.”
DeGroff says the stylistic differences
between vodka brands are subtle, because strong flavor is not a consideration.
“As a young bartender,” he recounts, “I used to scoff at the idea that guests
could tell which vodka they were drinking until I took part in my first vodka
tasting. I tasted 12 vodka brands in a blind tasting, and I found, to my
surprise, that there are stylistic differences in vodkas: Their texture on the
tongue or ‘mouthfeel,’ and their heat on the palate—either hot, rough and raw,
or, at the other extreme, smooth, round and finished.” Hence, says Phillips,
Belvedere’s “unique flavor profile: an aromatic, semisweet vanilla nose and a
creamy, semisweet lingering finish.”
Phillips enacted three campaigns to
build buzz. First, he sent Belvedere (in expensive gift boxes) to prominent
“influencers”—people who could be ambassadors for the brand simply by being in
the popular eye—such as Robert DeNiro, Bill Clinton and Barbara Streisand. Then
Phillips targeted bartenders across the country for taste tests. Lastly, he and
his staff went to white-tablecloth restaurants across the country to spread the
gospel of Belvedere and the value of introducing customers to a $15 Belvedere
martini. His plan paid off, and, with Belvedere succeeding, he introduced
Chopin, which has also been quite successful. “The sales at retail are in excess
of $3 billion for Belvedere and Chopin—which is amazing,” Phillips
says.
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