It’s a real skill to be able to get to the beauty of the raw material through quite an aggressive distillation process. We’re talking about trying to get something up to 95% abv and still have echoes of the raw material and delicate nuances. The imperfections in vodka are the echoes of the raw materials.

Much respect for Claire Smith, Belvedere’s head mixologist. More on her thoughts about vodka and New Orleans at NOLA Defender.