The vodka made from wine!

Q&A: Jean-Sebastien Robicquet

Despite his wine and Cognac-making roots, Jean-Sébastien Robicquet turned to distilling fine vodka. He tells Rrishi Raote about Cîroc.

Why vodka, from a winemaker?
In France everybody’s doing wine. In Cognac everybody’s doing Cognac. How can you exploit, diversify, innovate? After all, if you are making wine and if you are a distiller, the question of going into vodka is just extending the distillation to the highest level possible.

Were your neighbours offended at the break from tradition?
It was a little funny at the very beginning. “How can you make vodka when you should be making brandy or Cognac or wine?” They had a poor understanding of what could be vodka.

What is most distinctive about your Cîroc method?
The first is that it’s made of grapes and wine. The second is that we believe you need to have the best raw material, i.e. the best wine in the case of Cîroc, because distillation is nothing less than the concentration. And we don’t use filtration because we only work with the purest material, therefore we don’t need to clean, filter or sweep out all the efforts made at the winemaking level to enhance the flavours and the character.

How should Cîroc be drunk?
The fuzzy question about the perfect drink is it’s a sort of alchimia between local tradition, behaviour and moment. For me, I like it neat because it’s smooth, velvety, fruity vodka, but also, depending on the time of the day or the weather, you can have a splash of sparkling water or spring water, and zest of lime. Or if you feel like being creative, you can do with fresh fruits or vegetables. One is you take some grapes, you crush them, you add a dash of Cîroc to increase the sugar level, ice, shake it with vodka and that’s it.

You’re in India to judge a bartending competition. How did you learn mixology?
Talking about mixology is like talking about cooking or painting — you’ve got a palette of colour, a palette of food. Born and raised in the vineyard, we are trained to be sensitive, careful with flavours, scent, aromas, and try to match and blend.