Michael Hepworth
West HOLLYWOOD(Spiritsman)8/24/14/–September sees the release of the latest product in the Grey Goose empire, VX Grey Goose, A combination of their brand leader vodka and cognac. A soft launch of private tastings in select cities saw SPIRITSMAN treading the boards in West Hollywood this week for a very select gathering that included two of their brand ambassadors, bar owner David Kaplan and roving ambassador Guillaume Jobien.
The potent combination will be priced at $74.99 and it comes in a beautiful opaque style Glass bottle sure to impress any of your house guests. Unfortunately the Grey Goose Maitre De Chai Francois Thibault could not be in attendance, but because he is the mastermind behind this classy concoction he was there in spirit, literally.
The cognac used is young cognac that has likely been aged for only about two years. Since some cognac can be aged for up to sixty years, this younger type gives the drink an elegant floral flavor with hints of jasmine, apricot, peach, honey and plum. Even though the cognac is young, the grapes for the wheat based vodka are very mature. The breakdown for the 40% Alcohol by volume drinks is 95% vodka and 5% cognac.
What kind of food will go with this drink ? The dinner we had that was prepared by Matthew Chow started out with flight of ceviche on a bed of ice with oysters, snapper and uni. This was followed by a crab salad with Upland cress, Asian pear, sugar snap peas and walnuts. Main course was either a Crispy Duck Breast w/ a coconut risotto or a Pan Roasted Bass w/ Anson mills polenta, summer squash and New Zealand spinach. All this was concluded with a honey vodka peach, a peach scone crumble and a black pepper ice cream.
A couple of Grey Goose cocktails rounded out the evening. The Grey Goose Le Blanc Fizz is a potent mixture of Vodka, Vergus blanc, St.Germain and Martini Bianco. These are not drinks to drink in abundance as the sweet taste deceives the drinker as to the strength.
These were prepared by Grey Goose ambassador David Kaplan, Los Angeles bar owner, one of them being Honeycut in downtown Los Angeles. A cocktail utilizing VX Vodka included cocoa nib pear liqueur and amontillado sherry. Needless to say, a good time was had by all involved. If you want to VX neat, use a chilled snifter.
Michael Hepworth
287 S.Robertson Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211
http://twitter.com/MrSpiritsman
