La Rochelle Cognac maker creates vodka rival

Description:

La Rochelle Cognac house Godet has launched a new Cognac called Antarctica, pitching it as a trendy alternative to Vodka.

The new product aims to celebrate the South Pole expedition of Jean-Jacques Godet, the 13th generation of the Godet family who is now President of the company. He reached the South Pole in March 2008, some 70 degrees south of the equator, onboard the Golden Fleece. After an eight-week expedition in uncharted waters, he returned with the idea of a purer Cognac celebrating the untouched environment of the South Pole.

 

The new Cognac, with its unusually square bottle, is designed to recall the icebergs drifting in the frozen seas and is described as "a tribute to a lost world of purity and wildness". Antarctica is produced from Folle Blanche, the original grape variety of Cognac that almost disappeared at the end of the 19th Century when the phylloxera pest destroyed the French vineyards. The Godet family recently revived Folle Blanche, in an attempt to return to the roots of Cognac.

 

Antarctica is said to be the only product using the original grape of Cognac re-blended for the more 'hip' consumers worldwide. "This Cognac is pure in style, elegant and bluntly different, embodying the Godet family vision of Cognac, the tradition looked at with modernism and inspired by the instinct of the people behind our brand," said Godet.

 

The new Cognac is designed to be drank like vodka, ice cold and in shots. But, whereas vodka relies on its high alcohol content alone, the new cognac will have all the flavour of a traditional cognac, without the traditional colour.

 

The new drink is aimed at the markets in the Czech Republic and Russia, and is not intended as a serious contender for the French market. The French have more traditional tastes, a point highlighted by their luke-warm acceptance of the Schweppes Cognac mixer drink, another recent phenomenon.