‘Tis the season for luxe vodka bottlings, and at the top of the heap you’ll find this monster from Ciroc, an ostentatiously-packaged vodka that retails for two-fiddy. Er, $250.

Ciroc is of course vociferously repped by P. Diddy, who has been stumping for the brand for more than a decade. And now, it seems, it’s time to push things to a new shelf which they’ll have to build above where the top shelf is now.

Cîroc X, aka Ciroc Ten, is made using a blend of French grapes just like regular Ciroc is, “including the first harvest grapes of 2013 vintage, which are said by vintners to be the crispest of the harvest,” OK? Other than that, no real production information is available. And you really shouldn’t need it, anyway.

Just for kicks, let’s taste the vodka!

The nose is clean, just a touch medicinal but otherwise very mild, with perhaps a hint of mint. The palate is equally quiet, offering an old world astringency that echoes hospital character over anything else — primarily antiseptic, touched just barely with vanilla, and fading out with a clean, simple finish that has a tinge of sweetness.

I have few tasting notes for Ciroc X because there are few available to write. This is a very neutral, uncomplicated spirit, which is precisely what a vodka should be. For straight sipping, Ciroc X offers a straightforward and quite enjoyable experience, and its fluid design makes it blend well naturally with just about anything. I can’t complain about the vodka at all, really.

That said, there’s no getting around the price tag and the fact this this is a vodka primarily made to be admired from afar and not to be literally consumed. There simply isn’t $250 inside the bottle, and there really can’t be. Instead, it’s a solid $30 spirit with $220 of flash surrounding it, and that is quite a predicament. There’s not necessarily a right answer to the calculus there, but it’s how you approach that kind of equation that will demonstrate not just what kind of drinker you are, but what kind of person you are, too.

Please show your work.

80 proof.

B / $250 (1 liter) / ciroc.com [BUY IT NOW FROM DRIZLY]

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