The release this month of Ocean, a new vodka and the first to sport a "Made in Maui" label, bore all the signs of a class act — a gorgeous ocean-blue bottle showcased in inviting publicity photos, a splashy inaugural event at the Maui Ocean Center, a full-court press blitz.

But at a time when premium vodka is one of the fastest-growing segments in the spirits industry, and vodka cocktails ("-tinis" and their friends) have made a huge comeback, could this new drink, retailing for $35 to $43 a bottle, find a place among the Grey Gooses, Belvederes and Ketel Ones under the bright lights of the back bar?

If you'd asked Joey Gottesman that question last Wednesday, he'd have been skeptical. At that point, Gottesman, general manager of Diamond Head Grill at the W Honolulu Hotel — cocktail central for the smart young set — had done no more than check out the Ocean Web site (www.oceanvodka.com), but he didn't have high hopes. Thursday afternoon, after a blind tasting of vodkas, however, he had one word: "stunned." Stunned that he had rated Ocean his favorite of the four tasted (the others were Grey Goose, Belvedere and Ketel One) and stunned that a product with such an unlikely background would be that good.

The Advertiser organized the tasting with a panel of five beverage experts — our Raise a Glass columnists Kim Karalovich, Lisa Gmur, Cynthia Fenner and Todd Ashline, and special guest Gottesman. The four vodkas were poured from masked bottles with the tasters out of the room (these folks can recognize bottles just by shape — that's how familiar they are with the subject). The tasting was conducted exactly like a wine tasting — swirling, sniffing, spitting and all, but with the added attraction of a bit of caviar provided by Karalovich, who hosted the tasting at her Wine Stop shop on South King Street.

Three of the five tasters — Gottesman, Ashline and Fenner — rated the vodkas in exactly the same order: Ocean, Belvedere, Grey Goose. Karalovich and Gmur liked Ocean, but rated it third. No one thought much of Ketel One.

At the launch event on Maui on July 14, party-goers such as restaurateur Peter Merriman and Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar bar manager Don Bastien had praised Ocean with the same vocabulary over and over again: "smooth" and "sweet" — meaning sweet in the way that fresh corn is sweet, with a subtle hint of grain, nothing syrupy.

Our pros used a much broader vocabulary. "A pretty, pretty nose," said Gmur, a wine distributor, referring to the vodka's aroma. "Nice and fresh," said Fenner, who works in the Neiman Marcus Epicure department. Fenner found the vodka heavy and viscous but with a nice floral finish. "Clean and neutral in the nose with almost a sweet finish, a sort of caramel," said Ashline, manager at Chef Mavro. "I think you nailed it there — caramel," said W's Gottesman, who thought he detected a little bit of salinity in the spirit, balancing the sweetness. "That must be from the (desalinated) water," he speculated. Karalovich experienced Ocean as the lightest of the group in the nose, but more pronounced in flavor. "I got this initial richness but then it evaporates very quickly, it definitely leaves a burn," she said.

The bottom line: Karalovich will stock Ocean at The Wine Stop and Gottesman ordered several bottles for the Diamond Head Grill. Better Brands, which is distributing Ocean, is just beginning its sales effort.

Ocean Vodka started life as an off-the-wall business idea in the fertile brain of Mauian Shay Smith. The close-knit, highly entrepreneurial Smith family — Shay, his wife, Dyanna; brother Sye Vasquez and his wife, Jennifer; father and mother Kyle and Diana Smith — were looking for a business they could launch together. One day, Shay Smith's eye fell on an item in The Advertiser about Koyo USA'S MaHaLo Hawaii Deep Sea Water operation on the Big Island, in which water is pulled from the deep ocean and desalinated.

Suddenly, a lot of free-floating notions coalesced.

They'd already begun to think about producing some kind of Hawai'i-made alcoholic drink. They all enjoy vodka cocktails. Vodka is 60 percent water. This water was said to be exceptionally pure and good and it came from the Islands. What if ...?

Smith met with Koyo USA, whose principals greeted the idea with enthusiasm. The family formed Hawaii Sea Spirits LLC and contacted Distilled Resources, Inc., an Idaho-based consulting firm to the spirits industry. Here's some water, they said, build us a new vodka. As high quality as possible. And make it organic.

The consultants' reaction was not encouraging: "The first thing they said is, don't do another vodka. There are too many vodkas out there already," Shay Smith recalled in a Maui interview. His answer to that: "There's no vodka out of Maui or Hawai'i."

He was positive that, if he built it, the vodka lovers would come, if only for the novelty. And if he built it well, they would stay because they liked it (and perhaps also because a portion of the proceeds go to organizations that help to protect and revitalize ocean resources).

The first batch, created by master distiller Bill Scott, delighted the Smiths and is the recipe used today. "After we tasted it, that's when we knew: This is it, we have to do this," said Shay Smith, a Seabury Hall graduate who has a business and finance degree from Long Beach State. Ocean now is distilled in Idaho from certified organic rye and corn, then blended with MaHaLo water on Maui and bottled at Hawaii Seas Spirits' Kahului facility. The Smiths do the work themselves, although they have other careers, as well. "It's a real hands-on thing," said Shay Smith, whose favorite tipple is vodka and cranberry juice.

Although the vodka is priced for the ultra-premium market, Smith insists he has the local market in mind. "We don't want to be the Next Big Thing. We want to be a thing that works for people, that becomes a part of their lives," he said. He wants to see Ocean in bars and neighborhood grocery stores, not just tourist shops. Still, he said, for visitors, "this could be a nostalgic drink: 'Remember when we were there and we had Ocean martinis?' You can be anywhere in the world and you can be enjoying Hawai'i."

Sansei's Bastien, who admits to being a gin man himself, nevertheless thinks Ocean is a great idea from a marketing standpoint, and praised the flavor. "It's a little different, very nice. It doesn't have that real bitter, acidic taste some vodkas have. You can definitely taste the rye. I think it will catch on with the locals first," he said, noting that the run on premium vodkas is far from over. "There's probably more vodkas now than there were liquors behind the bar when I started 25 years ago. These guys are definitely on to something."

Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.