Belvedere
The First Lady of Vodka: Claire Smith of Belvedere
January 22, 2013 - 1:02am | by Daniel Priseman
I’m not generally good at interviews, as most of my conversations seem to take place over a drink or three, and I generally forget to take notes or press the record button. That being said there are a few people in the drinks industry who truly inspire me, so I’ve decided from time-to-time I should share their stories on b&t. One character whom I find remarkable is a good friend of b&t, Claire Smith, of Belvedere Vodka.
If you’ve been lucky enough to spend any time around Claire, then you’ll now that she’s a pretty disarming character; she’s personable, friendly, quick to laugh and quick to drink… basically all the qualities you’d expect from someone whose role includes, (but is not limited to) being the Brand Ambassador for one of the world’s leading super-premium vodkas. What you might not have realised at first glance, is that there’s a lot more to what she does than meets the eye.
Just because you have style, doesn't mean you have taste
May 16, 2011 - 8:35pm | by Daniel Priseman
Last month I wrote about vodka and my attempts to embrace it as a spirit category. With some help from Pete and Rich at Hawksmoor, I managed to find a way of approaching vodka that left me more willing to experiment with it in cocktails. My conclusion after several hours of sipping and chatting was that it can, and should be, appreciated neat, but that it can also be a valuable base spirit in cocktails where you want to celebrate and support other ingredients without having the spirit get in the way.
I promised to follow up that blog with my thoughts on some of the brands that grace back bars and speed rails in fine cocktail bars around the world, but to do so I thought I’d better enlist some help once again. I gathered a small group of friends together and headed for the amazing bar at The Zetter Townhouse. The group was made up of a bartender, two bloggers and a cocktail enthusiast, in other words a mixed spectrum that I hoped would represent all types of drinkers. In order to make sure that there would be no bias or preconceived ideas, the tasting was conducted blind.
Ambassadors can be worth their weight in gold... sometimes!
December 17, 2010 - 10:17pm | by Daniel Priseman
A while back I wrote about Belvedere’s search for their new Global Brand Ambassador, and this week I was lucky enough to spend a few days in New York meeting the finalists and seeing the conclusion of the competition. Belvedere have gone to great lengths to find just the right person to represent them and I’m sure they’ve made a great choice in Ali Dedianko, but it got me thinking about why brands feel the need to have a Brand Ambassador and what value these people bring to the industry?
Belvedere went to a lot of effort to find candidates who would reflect their brand, as the competition spanned several continents and took in various challenges. There was a lot of money spent flying people from around the world to the semi finals in the UK and then again over to New York for the final. So why exactly did they feel the need to go to these extreme efforts? The simple answer is that having the right person as the face of your brand can be an incredibly valuable asset, getting it wrong can be disastrous!
Belvedere dream job?...
September 21, 2010 - 8:45pm | by Daniel Priseman
The drinks industry is a pretty amazing one to work in. The pay isn’t usually great, the hours can be pretty rough and you do have to put up with being looked down on by ‘real professionals’’, but on the upside we eat and drink like rock stars, get to travel to far flung countries to visit distilleries and get to do the jobs that we love. Admittedly the burnout rate is pretty high as most people can only take being broke and over-worked for a few years before they want something more from life. The question is what to do when you’re tired of tending bar?
These days there are more options than ever, with people opening bar schools, starting consultancies or opening their own dream bar once they decide to step out from behind the one they're working at. But more and more bartenders seem to be turning to the spirit brands looking for a job as a Brand Ambassador to pay the bills and keep them in the industry they love. While these jobs are more common than they used to be, they are still few and far between, so when one comes up for grabs there is usually pretty fierce competition.
