In the first four years Bacardi added 1.5m cases to the brand. With 96% of sales in the States (in 2006), Grey Goose barely existed in the world beyond.

Perhaps more important was the brand’s global potential. So it’s really the uncompromising quality of Grey Goose that made it so attractive.” It’s sourced from selected farms in Picardie where we create our own distillate, which is then taken to Cognac and blended with water from the region. Thibault was there at the start and, according to Curtin, retains “an obsession with ensuring he controls the whole process right down to which wheat to use. “It was created by a maître de chai, François Thibault, who’s the essence and heart of Grey Goose,” she explains. As the most expensive vodka, Grey Goose was de facto: “the best”.Īs to why Bacardi wrote such a massive cheque, Natasha Curtin, the vodka’s current global brand manager, prefers to talk of its roots in the Cognac region. But maybe the biggest factor was simply the price. Celebrity endorsement was also key, not least the appearance of Goose Cosmos in Sex and the City. Other factors included the bottle design that looked great back-lit in a bar, the fat margins shared through the supply chain and the careful seeding of the brand into the right spots. To those arty, creative types at Absolut, Grey Goose’s marketing must have seemed almost vulgar, but it worked. Later, with the Iraq invasion looming, the ads were stamped with ”100% American-owned”, lest there be any anti-French backlash à la “freedom fries”. Readers could relate to something that scored 96/100, having been taught to buy wine by numbers by the wine guru, Robert Parker No one had heard of this obscure institute until full-page ads splashed its name across the Wall Street Journal. The “why” came from its production in France, the cradle of luxury drinks brands from Pol Roger to Pétrus, and from being rated “the world’s best-tasting vodka” by the Beverage Testing Institute of Chicago in 1998. Grey Goose was described as the “best vodka in the world” by the Beverage Testing Institute of Chicago

Crucially he gave consumers a reason why. Rather than go head-to-head or undercut America’s top premium vodka at US$17 a pop, Frank released his Goose at an eye-watering US$30, and called it super-premium. This gave him the confidence, financial clout and distribution muscle to take on Absolut. The man’s genius was obvious from Jägermeister – a herbal digestif drunk by elderly German immigrants which he turned into one of the hottest student brands ever. Since then every budding spirits entrepreneur has dreamed of emulating Sidney Frank’s success. Two thirds of this staggering sum went straight into Frank’s back pocket, though sadly he suffered a fatal heart attack on his private jet two years later. Eight years later, with sales somewhere north of 1.5 million cases, it was bought by Bacardi for a reported US$2 billion. Grey Goose Vodka was distilled from thin air in the summer of 1996 as a concept with no distillery, no bottle and no spirit. It sure did, prompting Frank to keep hold of the Grey Goose name and eventually pass it onto the iconic vodka that created the super-premium category almost single-handedly. “There was always something about the name that had magic with the consumer,” he later said. Liebfraumilch faded like many fads from “the decade taste forgot”, but Frank had registered his brand name worldwide and was clearly attached to it. Within his stable was a sugary German Liebfraumilch – a beverage that bridged the gap between soft drinks and wine for a generation of Americans. *This feature was first printed in The Spirits Business August 2014 issue.īack in the 1970s the late liquor baron, Sidney Frank, was building his empire in the States. Since its launch in 1997, Grey Goose has pioneered the super=premium vodka category It was a decisive move by Grey Goose to fly into its own super-premium vodka market – and it’s a move that’s paying off as the brand’s story of success continues.

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