When beverage entrepreneur Sidney Frank decided to build a high-end vodka brand in , he opted to do so in a place that his target drinkers, Americans, associate with luxury. He established a distillery in La Vallee de l'Oise, a region north of Paris, and a bottling plant in Cognac, an area synonymous with high-end French spirits. Thibault designed a French-centric production process, selecting base materials, water, and personnel to build a spirit suited to an American palate.
Everything from the liquid inside to the ink printed on the glass is made within the nation, and every day, workers from every position in the factory sit in the tasting room to evaluate the product. When asked whether the French have taken to Grey Goose in any measure that compares to Americans, Thibault laughs, indicating the factory's tasting room: "The Americans love it more, but the French love it, too.
We never have a shortage of volunteers. Vodka can be made from any fermentable material. There are commercial vodkas made from potatoes, grapes, rye, and mixed grains that include barley. Grey Goose uses soft winter wheat sourced from Picardy, a grain-growing region in northern France that's often referred to as the nation's breadbasket.
This particular wheat variety is sown in autumn and harvested in late summer; the company sources the grains from a small collective of local farmers. In general, wheat-based vodkas are softest in texture compared to the other base grains—the people behind Grey Goose also argue that the character of their finished product also bears the stamp of the Picardy terroir.
The entire world's supply of Grey Goose comes through the mill and distillery in La Vallee de l'Oise, a facility manned, when I visited, by all of 17 people. It's a small, focused operation: the wheat grain comes in via truck and is weighed and analyzed for starch content, then milled four times over into a fine wheat flour.
The flour then undergoes "saccharification," where the starch is converted into the glucose that will fuel the yeast during fermentation. From here, the resulting "wheat mash" enters a cascade fermentation process. Ask any vodka distiller or any distiller, really about what makes their spirit stand out, they'll first point to the base material and its origin, and then the water supply.
This is a premium vodka of unparalleled smoothness and exceptional taste, with subtle hints of almond and a long, satisfying finish. Grey Goose Vodka is a premium vodka, born of an extraordinary passion for spirit-making. It is created using only the finest French ingredients — the highest-grade wheat and pristine limestone-filtered spring water. It is a spirit of uncommon brilliance, unrivaled craftsmanship and signature smoothness and is an excellent choice as a gift.
Grey Goose Vodka is created in France, a country renowned for its craftsmanship, epicurean traditions and spirit-making heritage. The French have a deeply ingrained culture of terroir - identifying the ideal combination of quality food and drink ingredients with people, process and place.
Therefore, they have an innate understanding of how to get the best out of the best. Francois Thibault, the creator of Grey Goose, was inspired by his training as a cognac cellar master and created a vodka designed to express the true taste and character of the ingredients.
Francois still oversees every step of the unique journey from field to bottle. From harvest to milling to distillation to bottling, every step is done in France, using the traditions of the Maitre de Chai. Some of our farmers have worked the land going back 11 generations. Only two ingredients are used: single-origin Picardie winter wheat and natural spring water. Even every cork is macerated in Grey Goose before it closes the bottle. Made from the distillation of anything containing fermentable sugars, Straight Vodka is a clear and unaged spirit.
The wheat for Grey Goose is grown in Picardy and distilled there, before being sent to Cognac for filtration. It was pretty much smooth sailing for Grey Goose from the beginning.
Just a year after its initial release in , it was named the best tasting vodka in the world by the Beverage Tasting Institute. When Grey Goose first launched, the brand specifically shipped bottles out to bars in wooden crates as opposed to cardboard boxes like most other liquor brands.
Part of the reason Frank invented Grey Goose was that he saw the success of the Absolut brand, which was priced highly for its time.
Frank realized he could do one better. How to out-luxury a luxury brand? Raise the price. According to Vice , Kirkland vodka, which is one third the price of Grey Goose, has frequently outperformed its counterpart in blind taste-tests. Grey Goose, however, adamantly denies affiliation with the brand.
Hugely, in fact, since the Grey Goose label was sold to spirits giant Bacardi in — just 7 years into its product life cycle.
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