X MUSE, the pioneering Scottish blended barley vodka, inspired by art, has solidified its position as the vodka darling of the art world following its second Art Bar residency at the prestigious Venice Biennale of Arte’s vernissage. And the elegant vodka – a unique blend of two heritage barley varieties and pure water, drawn from its spiritual home: award-winning Jupiter Artland – invites you to toast ‘Foreigners Everywhere’ (this year’s Biennale curatorial theme by Adriana Pedrosa) with a delicious summer-drenched, new cocktail: Strangers in Scotland.
Strangers in Scotland is inspired by plants, which are often complete foreigners but quickly considered natives, this cocktail involves non-endemic ingredients that grow happily in Scotland but originally came from other parts of Britain and the world. It also infuses Campari with X MUSE Vodka – a homage to Venice and the Biennale, which will run until November. You can find the complete recipe further below.
X MUSE Art Bar: which took residency in the Renaissance courtyard and building of the Navy Officer’s Club, alongside the Venice Biennale’s Arsenale exhibition last week
THE STORY OF X MUSE AND JUPITER ARTLAND
The brand’s name is drawn from the Xth Muse bust of Sappho by Scottish poet, artist and gardener Ian Hamilton Finlay which resides at Jupiter Artland. The vodka’s exceptional quality arises from the careful orchestration of Plumage Archer and Maris Otter barley, combined with water drawn from an ancient aquifer at the heart of the estate, framed by the monumental land art commission Cells of Life by architect, artist and gardener Charles Jencks (the undulating curved lines of which are echoed in the vodka bottle’s shape).
During the alcohol reduction process, a small amount of this water is added to the vodka. These ‘Magic Drops’ have been energized in a glass vortex and rested on amethyst crystals in reference to British artist Anya Gallaccio’s amethyst grotto also, on view at Jupiter Artland.
Pictured from left to right:
1. X MUSE bottle design inspired by Cells of Life landscape, framed above an ancient aquifer where the purest water is drawn to make X MUSE
2. Cell of Life by landscape architect Charles Jencks(2003-2010)
3. Ian Hamilton Finlay’s XTH MUSE sculpture (2008)
X MUSE AT THE VENICE ARTE BIENNALE’S 60TH VERNISSAGE
X MUSE has made waves at Frieze, White Cube, Goodman Gallery, Thaddeus Ropac and Hauser and Wirth and, most recently, with its Art Bar residency at the Navy Officer’s Club, to coincide with the Venice Biennale of Arte’s 60th vernissage.
Artful drinking and conversations were accompanied by a series of talks and performances – involving The Art Newspaper, Delfina Foundation, artist of consciousness Marcos Lutyens – among others. The residency in the Renaissance cloister of this celebrated also included a sneak peek of a new book entitled Art Thinking scribed by X MUSE’s Artistic Director and Co-founder Grigoryan and to be published by Cultureshock later this year.
X MUSE STOCKLIST
X MUSE (70 cl) is priced at approximately £55 and available for purchase on the X MUSE website and at select retailers, including Hedonism, Petersham Cellar, Master of Malt, Amazon UK, and The Whisky Exchange. Selfridges, and Harvey Nichols. It is also about to be exported from Scotland to France with La Maison du Whisky.
The X MUSE experience extends beyond the bottle, with Milan-based design studio Formafantasma’s X MUSE Temple at Jupiter Artland with hosted helicon tasting workshops available to book via [email protected] (Jupiter Artland will close on the 29th September, 2024).
