Looking for a new luxury spirit to add to your drinks cart this summer? We might just have found the must-try drink of 2022. X Muse Vodka – or ‘Tenth Muse Vodka’, as it is pronounced – is the first blended barley vodka, inspired by the ancient spirit-making traditions and history of Scotland, and is the key ingredient you need for your garden party cocktails and barbecue drinks as we head into the warmer and sunnier months of the year.
Established and mysterious with a focus on the arts, the founders of X Muse believe firmly in technology and magic. Having experimented and re-engineered, pushing beyond common traditions to create an augmented spirit that is dedicated to providing an intense and elevated experience, it has creatively blended a combination of heritage barley and the purest water to create a one-of-a-kind vodka.
Its name – X Muse Vodka – holds several layers of meaning, first referencing the nine muses of Greek mythology – all of which are known for heavenly art and creativity and are named with inspirational roles specified. The Tenth Muse is unnamed, unknowable and beyond form, representing all that is unseen, uncaptured, undefined and understood. And it is this Tenth Muse that has been chosen as a vehicle for the brand’s philosophy: “More is hidden than uttered”.
Combining the powers of her nine sisters, the tenth muse is said to help push us towards living in perfect balance and harmony – both qualities which are found in X Muse Vodka and that it hopes to impart upon fans of the drink.
But this isn’t the only inspiration behind the name. X Muse is also the title of a sculpture by a great Scottish artist, poet, philosopher and gardener named Ian Hamilton Finlay, which was installed in 2008, two years after his passing. Just one of several of Finlay’s works on display at Jupiter Artland, the bust depicts the poet Sappho – with Plato insisting that she deserved the title – placed on top of an eight-foot column of Portland stone. It is from this piece, filled with rich, complex resonances and unparalleled beauty, that X Muse vodka also takes its name.
Heritage barley
There are two types of barley used to create X Muse’s delicious vodka blend – Maris Otter and Plumage Archer barley. Each distilled individually before being combined in precise amounts, it’s a process that is unique to X MUSE, using barleys carefully selected for their richness of flavour to make for a silky smooth and delicious Scottish barley vodka that is quite unlike any other.
Barley holds strong elements of symbolism and significance and its cultivation is older than written history. In ancient Greece, an ear of barley represented eternal life and the cycle of resurrection after death within Eleusinian Mysteries. It is also likely that the barley was the basis of the very first ever alcoholic beverages consumed by Neolithic man, and today, barley is at the core of spirit-making traditions throughout Scotland.
From the old to the new
Having drawn inspiration from the long-standing methods, elements, ingredients and processes traditionally used in Scottish distillation practices and integrating them with ancient arts and new sciences, the brains behind X Muse have studied an array of spirit-making traditions and the originations within alchemy, consistently looking at forward-thinking options whilst adopting science and technology when required.
X Muse Vodka is derived from quiet innovation and a refusal to be constricted by the usual normality. Unlike the masses, it’s a brand that does not believe that vodka should be colourless or odourless, but in fact, should be a pocketful of complex aromas in both its taste and scent. Rather than being derived from a singular tradition or place, it should concentrate on the wider spectrum, of the essential distillation and purification – and be rooted in a process that instils perfection.
“We strongly believe in creating an ambitious vodka that is inviting, delicious for sipping and savouring every drop,” says Vadim Grigoryan, X MUSE co-founder.
“That is the spirit maker’s ultimate challenge. X Muse focuses on its purity and intricate flavours, with strong beliefs that quality vodka can not be bolstered by botanicals or left in oak barrels, but must be recognised for its own values. This is the measure of X Muse.”
It certainly sounds like a delicious and inspired drink, but the proof, as they say, is in the pudding – or in this case, the vodka cocktails. If you add one new spirit to your drinks cabinet or cart this summer, then make it X Muse – the perfect ingredient for up-levelling all of your favourite alcoholic beverages to mouth-wateringly sophisticated new heights.
