The World’s Best Vodka—According To Three Vodka Experts

From a marketing perspective, Belvedere 10 has a lot going for it. The ultra-premium Polish vodka label launched last October with an artfully-rendered commercial directed by Taika Waititi and starring Future. The sculpted bottle encasing the $150 expression is a work of art in its own right—a faceted tower fit for the club, with a built-in lighting array. And the brand has spared little expense in promoting it, with glitzy activations at high profile venues across the globe.

But all this fanfare would fade rather quickly if the spirit itself wasn’t worthy of significant praise. A growing choir of experts from coast to coast are bestowing it with just that. In fact, in our ongoing quest to keep up with the top tipples on shelves today, we’ve come across a few industry vets who believe Belvedere 10 might just be the world’s best vodka right now.

Superlatives such as these are ultimately subjective, of course. Yet they do carry more weight when they come from people who sip and mix spirits for a living. We’ll dive into their opinions in a moment. First let’s unscrew the weighty cork atop Belvedere 10 to objectively understand a bit more about what went into its production.

Each batch of Belvedere 10 is distilled from a single crop of organic Diamond rye, harvested from a single 10-hectare plot of Polish farmland on a single estate. The brand says that it follows traditional distillation methods typical to 1910, when Belvedere was founded. And the liquid that rolls off those stills are left to mellow for a full ten months before bottling.

Although you might suspect a spicy bite thanks to the underlying grain used in its formation, Belvedere 10 is much more of a citrusy and saccharine affair. Fresh lemon pops up in the nose and a creamy kind of buckwheat honey note brushes across the palate. When served on the rocks, a gentle nuttiness emerges.

“There’s a great viscosity to Belvedere 10 and yet it’s still super refreshing and crisp in a martini,” observers Matt Edelman, bartender at Paul’s Casablanca, the iconic New York nightclub. Behind the bar, he’s often asked to use it in high-end cocktails. But for his own tastes he finds it to be an ideal pour with soda. “As with any great spirit, it isn’t just the taste of it—it’s how it makes you feel.”

For longtime drinks scribe and podcast host Dan Dunn, Belvedere 10 is the vodka he uses to refute anyone who dismisses the category as neutral, flavorless booze.

“Crafted with single-estate rye and distilled with the kind of precision that would make a Swiss watch blush, it proves that vodka can be complex, elegant, and a little bit rock ‘n roll all at once. In fact, this liquid has enough fine flavors swirling around in it, they ought to award it a Michelin star.”

Chad Schropp, beverage director of 208 Rodeo in Beverly Hills, is a little more subdued in his praise. Nevertheless, he doesn’t hesitate to name it his favorite vodka currently on shelves. He points to the quality of the single estate grain used in its production as the fundamental basis for its beauty, which exerts a whisper of fresh coffee beans in its finish. Unsurprisingly, then, it works just as well in an espresso martini as it does solo, over ice.

However you choose to take it, this is a vodka—in its “10-leve”l white bottle—that you can count on instantly recognizing along the back bar. Yes, there are a lot of tens involved. But we’ll leave that to the ad wizards. For the drink experts above it’s a perfect 10 in flavor. And that’s what matters most.