MARKETING SENSATION
PURITY IN PRODUCTION
Grey Goose is a premium brand of vodka, produced in France but marketed firmly in America.
Grey Goose is made from fine winter wheat sourced in the Picardy ‘bread basket’ region of northern France. The wheat is certified as ‘class 1 blé panifiable supérieur’ (superior bread-making wheat), deemed good enough to make French baguettes and pastries.
Its immense commercial success since 1997 has been credited as inspiring the launch of other highend vodkas, although Grey Goose was itself roused by the rival Polish brand Belvedere, born in 1996. Grey Goose was designed by Sidney Frank, a selfmade billionaire from Connecticut, who’d previously succeeded in transforming the speciality liqueur Jägermeister into a mainstream product. He boldly took the Grey Goose concept and promoted it so triumphantly that, just seven years later, he sold the brand to Bacardi for a cool $2.2 million, the largest ever figure for a single drinks label. Mr Frank went with the notion that French manufacturing carries weight in perceived high quality of luxury goods. So he sent a team to Europe and the rest is a record-breaking fifteen years of marketing history.
The spirit is distilled using a custom designed system featuring five column stills, then it is transported to Grey Goose’s Gensac facility in the Cognac region of the Loire Valley. This is where blending, filtration and bottling (with a replaceable cork) take place. The vodka is blended with pure spring water that’s been naturally filtered through Grande Champagne limestone and is sourced using an artesian well, which draws the water from an aquifer so that it’s not touched by human hands or pollutants. Everyday, the vodka goes through 500 different quality control tests. After blending, the vodka is passed through a carbon and cellulose filter for final polishing and smoothing. Finally it’s tested by the maître de chai (cellar master) and his panel of tasting experts.
Picard
Loire Valley
GREY GOOSE
FRANCE Gensac
Above – Grey Goose creator, Sidney Frank. Right – special bakerygrade wheat is used in its production