Jo Malone CBE creates vodka range

Since selling her cult perfume brand to Estée Lauder in a multi-million-pound deal in 1999, the London-born entrepreneur has not sat still. She debuted her Jo Loves fragrance brand in 2011, and is now expanding into the spirits sector.

Malone’s journey into the category came when a friend asked her if she had ever considered applying her gift of synaesthesia to creating a vodka.

“Everyone knows me for the sense of smell, but could I create myself in another sense? And, obviously, the nearest one is taste,” she explains, as we sit down to discuss the range in London. “I thought [vodka] is not that dissimilar to creating fragrance, except one’s for your nose and one’s for your palate.”

The new brand, called Jo Vodka, was in development for 18 months. The collection debuts with three expressions: 101 The Purist, 102 The Bohemian, and 103 The Artist. To create Jo Vodka, Malone tapped 20-year spirits veteran Joanne Moore, master distiller for the premium gin portfolio at Quintessential Brands.

G&J Distillers in Warrington, Cheshire, makes the vodka, alongside other Quintessential Brands products, such as London Dry gins Bloom and Greenall’s, and spiced gin Opihr. Jo Vodka also has the backing of Quintessential Brands founder Enzo Visone, who is a partner.

Vision for the brand

Each vodka has been designed to be versatile, suitable for both sipping and mixing in cocktails. In terms of her vision for the brand, Malone notes that she always saw it as a collection of vodkas, based on stories from her life and her character.

The vodka range uses The Purist as its base, with each expression inspired by parts of Malone’s character. The Purist is made with a “secret formula”, with Malone describing it as “very comfortable in the past, the present and the future”. Its smooth and crisp profile lends itself well to a classic Dirty Martini.

The Bohemian uses the beach as its inspiration, with Malone living in a beachside location in Dubai. “I’m often barefoot and just dreaming and watching the sunset there,” she says. The vodka features ingredients such as pomelo, yuzu, bay leaf and bergamot, and is best served in a tumbler with a large piece of ice and a pomelo zest or pink grapefruit garnish.

Malone based 103 The Artist on her time as a teenager in the 1970s, growing up at the bottom of London’s King’s Road.

“The creativity, the artistry, all the beautiful blossoms that run all the way around the squares,” she recalled. “It’s the story of rock and roll, Chelsea, and being the artist within you that you kind of haven’t reached the destination in a way, you’re still discovering who am I?”

The Artist is described as “very floral”, with notes of rose, pink peppercorns, and sencha, and is best served with soda water.

Moore described her collaboration with Malone as “incredibly exciting”, adding that her work in the perfume industry “always stood out to me”.

She recalled her first meeting with Malone, which was over Zoom: “I was quite nervous beforehand. But she immediately put me at ease. Jo is such a warm, open, and friendly person. Very quickly, we discovered how much we have in common creatively. Her approach to making fragrances really mirrors the way I develop spirits like gin and vodka.”

While Malone isn’t typically a spirits drinker (she’s a fan of Italian wine Gavi or Sauvignon Blanc), she notes a penchant for “clean and citrussy” flavours when it comes to her drinking choices. “I like that in fragrance. And I like citrussy people as well. Like what you see is what you get – clean, crisp, fresh. It’s kind of part of my character.”

There are also plans for new products in the range later this year, but details are currently under wraps.

For those heading off on their summer holidays, bottles of the vodkas can be picked up through Avolta. The brand has listings in 100 airports worldwide, including London Heathrow, as well as the brand’s website. Each vodka is priced at £50 (US$69), and there are plans to launch in UK retail and on-trade this year.

Malone describes the sectors of perfume and spirits as parallel worlds, with fragrances being created in “very similar” ways to spirits.

Moore adds: “There are actually a lot of parallels. We both work with notes – whether it’s botanicals or aromas – and we build layers to create a final experience.

“For me, these ingredients have almost a sound or wavelength; Jo, interestingly, sees them visually. So while our interpretations may differ, the process of blending and balancing is remarkably similar. It’s about creating harmony and evoking emotion through what we craft.”

Referring to both spirits and perfumes, Malone says: “Everything I did in my first business, I’m doing in my third business at the moment. I’ve always got a bottle in my hand at some point in my life.

“I think people look at me, and they look at my history, and I deliver, whether I’m creating a story and flavours for vodka, or I’m doing Jo Loves, or all the other projects I work on; people can see that we deliver. I’ve been part of building US$2 billion brands, and I believe that this is going to be the third.

“[It’s necessary to] have a product you believe in, you feel passionate that you know the creativity is there, and it’s full of integrity. If I didn’t have those things, I wouldn’t be doing it.

“This isn’t about me putting my name on something. This is about me creating, in another sense, and bringing to the world something different yet again.”