The ReveRse vespeR MaRTini

Ingredients 60ml vodka 20ml dry gin 10ml Lillet Blanc

MethodShake the ingredients in a cocktail shaker, until very cold. Then, fine-strain the mixture into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with grapefruit zest.

Be it the perfect cocktail or a sip of James Bond’s favourite drink, Claire Smith, First Lady of Vodka, shows us how it’s done! By DessiDre Fleming

BONDING OVER MARTINIS

whenever I can. I try to eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables in between meetings and events because that’s the closest I come to a proper meal.

And when you do drink, what’s your poison? It depends on how I’m feeling and the occasion, mostly. Right now, I could do with a martini—shaken, not stirred. Otherwise, I like neat vodka!

Tell us some interesting ways to pair cocktails with food. The idea is that the cocktail should either complement or contrast with your food. So if you go for a very complex meal, which is very f lavourful, stick to a simple cocktail that doesn’t take away from the meal but adds to the f lavour. If your meal is simple, then go for an elaborate cocktail. Similarly, if your food is spicy, go for a refreshing, maybe slightly fruity, cocktail. It’s all about balancing the food and the cocktail. You can experiment with different garnishes, like a sliver of onionskin, a slice of tomato, an assortment of fruits and vegetables, or even a bit of ginger for an instant revival.

Now tell us about the Bond Martini! The Bond Martini, or the Vesper cocktail, is basically the emulation of the original drink that you see James Bond describing in Casino Royale. Only, we inverted the proportions of vodka and gin and call it the Reverse Vesper. It’s the latest update of the legendary drink and it caters to a new generation of 007 and Belvedere Vodka connoisseurs. Instead of three parts of gin, we use three parts of Belvedere Vodka.

Wow, that sounds tempting! What else is in store for Bond aficionados? Well, we have launched two custom-made, limited-edition Belvedere Vodka bottles that pay homage to the 007 series: We have replaced the Belvedere Palace with the MI6 Headquarters and the blue palette is switched for a green, which is Bond’s signature ink. We have also added a 007 twist to our Belvedere Silver Saber bottles as a tribute to the James Bond franchise. The bottle lights up on the inside!

Clearly, this is one of the most talked-about partnerships in recent times. Yes, it’s something we have been looking forward to. With Belvedere Vodka selling in approximately 140 countries and James Bond being the most popular film franchise around the world, this partnership is perfect. Both the brands, James Bond and Belvedere, are legendary in their own right. We just decided to bring them together on a global platform. The timing couldn’t be any better, really.

Claire Smith, Head of Spirit Creation and Mixology at Belvedere, has come a long way from studying law and bartending. The queen of cocktails started out at Synergy, Nottingham’s first-ever cocktail bar, in 2001. She entered various cocktail-making

competitions, eventually winning Battle of The Giants, UK’s largest competition. She joined Moët Hennessey in 2003 as the UK Brand Ambassador for Belvedere Vodka and, today, 12 years later, she is the industry’s most respected authority. We spoke to Claire about Belvedere’s latest partnership with 007, what constitutes a good martini and how to recreate Bond’s favourite drink—shaken, not stirred!

The First Lady of Vodka! What’s it like? It’s very exciting. The best part about my job is that there is no

typical day at work. I’m always travelling to events, meetings, work-parties. I barely get to sleep because I’m always going from one time zone to another. There’s a common belief that there’s a lot of drinking involved with my title, but that’s a misconception. After spending so much time around alcohol, you realise you need to be sober, because that’s your work and you can’t afford a bad hangover every morning!

That sounds happening and equally exhausting. How do you manage your diet? Given that I have such an erratic schedule, it becomes difficult to maintain a diet, especially when you’re working with alcohol all the time. It gets to me during tasting sessions, which almost always clash with jet lag and irregular eating habits—it’s somewhere you really don’t want to be! I go for a good run

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