The Belvedere Vodka story starts in 1993 when it was founded by Polmos Zyrardów. It is distilled in the Polish city of Zyrardow using water from nearby Lake Zywiec but takes its name from the Belweder, the Polish presidential palace in Warsaw which is featured on the bottle. The name means “beautiful to see”. Though it’s a comparatively young brand, the distillery where it is made dates back to 1910.
Belvedere really began to take off when it was distributed in America by a company called Millennium LLC which eventually bought the brand in 2001, and turned it into one of the world’s most prestigious spirits. Millennium in turn was bought outright by French drinks giant LVMH in 2005 who own Belvedere to this day.
Belvedere uses only Polish-grown rye sourced from eight local farms. Following fermentation, it undergoes a triple distillation to produce a spirit of great purity which is also full of flavour. As well as the flagship Belvedere Pure expression, the distillery produces some super premium versions that highlights the flavour and terroir of rye grown in Poland including the Belvedere Heritage 176 made with a proportion of high flavour malted rye spirit, and various single estate bottlings. There’s also a range of flavoured vodkas.
Over the years Belvedere has partnered with musicians such as Usher and John Legend as well as being the official vodka of 2015 James Bond film ‘Spectre.’ Not surprisingly, Belvedere Pure makes a splendid Vesper Martini or simply sip it neat, and very cold with all kinds of Polish delicacies like smoked fish, pickles and cured meats.