Jack Gervaise-Brazier is a restless romantic. He was brought up on Guernsey, which filled him with a love of islands, but also a desire for wider horizons. As Jack was a head boy and a good historian and classicist, his schoolmasters assumed that he would move on to university and he was offered a place at Durham. Had he visited, he might have fallen under the seduction of its cathedral and other glories. As it was, he headed for a different City to pursue stockbroking and trading. Although he turned out to be a more than useful performer, he always intended to use this as a ladder, enabling him to start up his own ventures. These included a brewery on Guernsey and a rum company. But the restlessness persisted. This was all an interim.
Jack had always been interested in Greek mythology as well as its antiquities and landscape. He once sailed past Hydra in the Saronic islands, jewels in the wine-dark sea. As full darkness descends, it is always possible to believe that the regimen of Christianity and modernity loses its potency with nightfall, while the ancient Gods fly forth to assert their continuing sovereignty.
Hydra is the classical Greek word for water: the island is well-endowed with springs. It is also associated with the multi-headed monster, ultimately slain by Herakles as one of his labours. But the monster had his revenge. According to one version of Herakles’s death, the creature’s venom – provided by the goddess Hera – poisoned the Shirt of Nessus, which Herakles wore, condemning him to agony. There is one conclusion to be drawn from all this. Fear Greek goddesses, whatever they are bearing.
Jack was looking for inspiration and found it. Hydra: water. Vodka/vody is the Russian/Ukrainian word for water. So Jack had a project, plus a name for the product, Hydra Vodka, which would of course draw heavily on Greek mythology. He also struck up a partnership with a fellow romantic, an Austrian called Rene Riefler. A giant of a man, Rene has often been told that he would make a good James Bond villain, but that does not seem like an accurate character reading. Rene regards himself as the brake to Jack’s accelerator.
The new firm set about making vodka, though not – so far – on Hydra. The main distilling, grain-based, will take place in Schiedam, Rotterdam. This distillery dating from 1658 is one of the oldest and most important in Europe. The premises are imposing.
Vodka is of course especially pleasurable with caviar, but it is an excellent aperitif
Hydra Vodka started off with one stroke of luck, at least for them. Just when Jack and Rene launched their endeavours, Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine. Suddenly, the export market for Russian vodka collapsed. A new vodka with no difficult associations seemed easy to market, and so it has proved.
Vodka is of course especially pleasurable when accompanied by caviar. But it is an excellent aperitif. A stylish, sophisticated drink with a clarity of taste and a long finish, then even if much of the world is in the grip of the Shirt of Nessus, this vodka is a fine herald of a good dinner.
As I savoured all this, Jack asked me if there was anything unusual that I had noticed in the taste. Though there was nothing which I could identify, the answer was that he had drawn on his rum-distilling days and added a tiny amount of sugar cane. Original, daring even: one would not associate sugar cane with vodka. Yet it worked, adding length and subtlety.
A major French supermarket group, E.Leclerc, has already placed a substantial order. In the UK, those who taste it appear to want to taste again. I myself prefer it to Grey Goose. We will hear more, and drink more, of Hydra Vodka.
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