P. Diddy’s drink
This is a review of Cîroc vodka from France. I sampled it in Germany in 2013. It’s clear, 40% alcohol, it’s made from grapes, and it turned out to be one of my favorites.
Cîroc vodka is from France. That must be why it has the i with that little roof on top. I guess you could also write it as Ciroc if you wanted.
what to know
There are a few things to know about Cîroc vodka. First of all, while most vodka is made from grain or potatoes or even bread, this one isn’t. Just like Bree, it’s distilled from grapes.
Secondly, Cîroc vodka is owned in part by Diageo (just like Ketel One, Smirnoff, and Istanblue) and in part by American rapper/entrepreneur Sean Combs aka P. Diddy.
Thirdly, it’s a very good vodka.
the French dude
I went back and checked ciroc.com for some background information. It didn’t seem to mention P. Diddy or Diageo at all:
Instead it talked about grapes and filtration. And it introduced Jean-Sébastien Robicquet, the creator of Ciroc vodka:
This reminded me of the Nolet family from Ketel One or of Bert Beveridge aka Tito from Tito’s Handmade. I thought it was generally a good marketing strategy to emphasize the artisanal part of vodka making. Instead of just focussing on names and bottle design.
There was a short introduction to the distillation process:
Cîroc vodka also had an Instagram account with a large following but low engagement (almost 200k followers leaving an average of a few hundred likes on each post):
Again, no mention of P. Diddy or Diageo.
new things
Back to the review. I like trying new things. But since I’m not a big fan of P. Diddy, I wasn’t overly excited about this brand at first. But when I noticed it in a store I thought: well, Bree vodka was made from grapes and it was pretty good, so why should this one be bad?
Little did I know how right I was.
Cîroc vodka is the sweetest
Cîroc is a very smooth vodka, and it has a distinct sweetness in its initial taste. I’m not sure if this has anything to do with the grapes, but it’s definitely there. And this sweetness develops into a complex aroma in the aftertaste. The only thing that’s short of perfect is that the aftertaste seems a bit “cold”. Cîroc vodka doesn’t warm up the stomach like it’s supposed to.
The bottle design seemed nice in a quirky way – there’s a blue dot near the top and a blue dot on the bottom. Okay. Only the pricing of about 28€ for 700ml was a bit of a bummer.
a favorite
This one turned out to be one of my favorite vodka brands ever. Sweet and smooth. I’m not sure how much the grapes contributed to that. Or the five-fold distillation. But it’s definitely good enough to enjoy neat and at room temperature.
It’s a world class vodka. If you like P. Diddy or not.