Pernod Ricard's new Vodka is infused with caviar
Caviar and vodka are the ultimate pairing, and a new vodka has mixed the two successfully for the first time
Caviar and vodka are the ultimate luxury food-and drink pairing, but putting the sturgeon eggs into the spirit spells disaster. The caviar explodes and whitens the liquid, which eventually smells of rot.
Pernod Ricard SA has just introduced a new vodka in London that aims to deal with the problem – at US$213 per 20-centiliter bottle. The French distiller turned to a patented technology from the skin-care industry, allowing it to safely place caviar coated with an aqueous film into the bottle, infusing it with notes of butter and hazelnut.
It’s the first spirits innovation from a Pernod Ricard skunk works tucked away on a cobblestoned side street in Paris. In a startup-like office where water drips from the ceiling and shelves are lined with manuals on blending cocktails with cannabis, eight researchers are pressing ahead with a Silicon Valley-inspired task: disrupt the future of the alcoholic drinks business.
Pernod Ricard is trying to revive a vodka business that centers on the Absolut brand it acquired from Swedish parent Vin & Sprit in 2008. In recent years Absolut has lost the cult status it commanded in the 1980s, when the brand turned to Andy Warhol to illustrate its advertising and rose to become the best-selling imported vodka in the US. In 2015, as sales slipped to 11 million cases of a dozen 75-centiliter bottles from about 11.5 million cases two years earlier, Pernod Ricard wrote down the value of Absolut.
The new brand, called L’Orbe, reflects the challenges of innovating in an industry where basic production methods have changed little over the years. As sales of mass-market liquor brands slow in developed markets and economic headwinds mount in the emerging world that’s driven growth, Pernod Ricard and other distillers are pursuing “premiumisation,” seeking to sell their drinks at a higher price.
Cognac, Whiskey
Vodka remains the largest spirit in the US, accounting for around US$18 billion in annual sales, but darker drinks such as cognac and whiskey are growing faster. Vodka is suffering from what a former executive at Smirnoff owner Diageo Plc in 2014 termed “flavor fatigue.” Smirnoff’s dozens of offshoots have included Fluffed Marshmallow and Pineapple Coconut Sorbet, while Pernod Ricard dabbled in Electricity and Fresh-Cut Grass vodkas under the Oddka label.
“In the U.S. brown spirits have gained market share partly due to perceived greater authenticity, while fruit-based flavored innovation in vodka seems to have run out of steam,” Trevor Stirling, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said by phone.