Pash-ion for Vodka #16 - Absolut San Francisco/Grapevine

In 2011, the Absolut City Flavours range moved from Brooklyn, on America’s East Coast, to “the City by the Bay” on the Pacific Coast, San Francisco. The flavours of choice in this version were grape, dragon fruit and papaya. The flavours were chosen to reflect Northern California’s Wine Country and the city’s Asian and Latin cultures. Towards the end of the year of its release, it was re-branded as Absolut Grapevine.

The Taste

1) Room temperature 
Nose: Fruity, with some bitter tannin-like notes and hints of berries and grapes. Taste: Quite smooth, but also quite sweet, the main flavour was a slightly artificial one of grapes; there was nothing fresh about it, which is a shame and results in the vodka tasting a bit cheap.

2) From the freezer
Ice-cold, this had a fresh, fruity, luscious nose, with lots of grape and papaya (a good start, there). Despite the promising nose, the taste was a bit of a let-down, with the white grape dominating and the papaya ending up being rather obscured. Like the spirit at room temperature, this was also quite artificial and a bit rough at the end; again, quite a disappointment.

3) Martini
Dry and bitter, with a dash of richer fruitiness, this was quite good and easily my favourite way to the drink this vodka; I’d definitely order it again.

4) Vodka Tonic
Not bad. Although a touch on the bitter side, with hints of tannins from the grapes, this also had a sweet fruitiness to it. Inoffensive.

Absolut San Francisco (same as Grapevine) is available for around £42 for 75cl from The Whisky Exchange.