Costco Vodka and Grey Goose
Since I restarted my beer tasting project recently I figured I could also restart liquor tasting. ...Well, I don't have a specific "project" for liquor tasting. I'm just always curious whenever I have two (or more) bottles of the same kind of liquor, "What do these taste like compared to each other?" In this comparison I sampled two vodkas that many people think are very similar: Costco's Kirkland Signature French vodka and Grey Goose French vodka.
"Okay, how are those two similar?" you might wonder. One comes from a respected French distiller and has long been recognized as a top-shelf vodka. The other comes from Costco, the warehouse store best known for discount prices on this sold in huge quantities, like one-gallon jars of mustard.
What the two have in common is that a lot of Costco fans think Kirkland vodka is actually made by Grey Goose!
A Mystery Manufacturer
Costco doesn't have its own distilleries so it white-labels liquor produced by other makers. The Kirkland brand is thus similar to a lot of other store brands, where a name-brand manufacturer makes an item on the same production line as their name-brand product and puts it in an off-brand package. White-labeling is common in consumer products and usually it's unremarkable... when it's socks or allergy pills. But the idea that a luxury goods maker is behind a product that sells super cheap really fires up some people's curiosity.
It's not established fact that Grey Goose makes Kirkland vodka. It's merely popular suspicion. In fact, Grey Goose officially denies it! But that doesn't convince some Costco fans. It makes sense that a luxury goods maker would deny such a thing anyway. It'd harm their brand value if it were well know consumers could buy virtually the same product for less than half the cost.
Costco is tight-lipped about who makes their French vodka. Part of that's got to be contractual terms. Whoever the maker is, Grey Goose or anyone else, doesn't want their brand value reduced by people knowing the same stuff is available for a fraction of the price under a different name at Costco. Part of it is presumably also Costco adding to the mystique of its in-house brand.
Time for the Test of Taste!
I bought a bottle of Kirkland vodka some time ago to give it a try. It's a solid vodka that punches well above its lower-middle range price. Then I was re-gifted a bottle of Grey Goose. I figured it's time to put them head to head!
For this comparison I tasted the two vodkas neat. You can see in the picture above/left I simply poured them into shot glasses. I then alternated sips.
Overall the two vodkas are very similar. I can see why so many Costco fans wonder if Kirkland vodka really is Grey Goose. In tasting them side-by-side like this I found that the tastes are not exact. They're very close, but not identical.
That doesn't rule out that they're produced by the same maker, of course. It makes sense that if Grey Goose does make Kirkland vodka, they alter the recipe slightly. Again, though, Grey Goose denies they produce Kirkland Signature French vodka.
So, what's the difference? I actually liked the Kirkland Signature vodka better! The two have a very similar character, but Kirkland has a rounder character to its flavor while Grey Goose's delivers a sharper alcohol burn.
"Okay, how are those two similar?" you might wonder. One comes from a respected French distiller and has long been recognized as a top-shelf vodka. The other comes from Costco, the warehouse store best known for discount prices on this sold in huge quantities, like one-gallon jars of mustard.
What the two have in common is that a lot of Costco fans think Kirkland vodka is actually made by Grey Goose!
A Mystery Manufacturer
Costco doesn't have its own distilleries so it white-labels liquor produced by other makers. The Kirkland brand is thus similar to a lot of other store brands, where a name-brand manufacturer makes an item on the same production line as their name-brand product and puts it in an off-brand package. White-labeling is common in consumer products and usually it's unremarkable... when it's socks or allergy pills. But the idea that a luxury goods maker is behind a product that sells super cheap really fires up some people's curiosity.
It's not established fact that Grey Goose makes Kirkland vodka. It's merely popular suspicion. In fact, Grey Goose officially denies it! But that doesn't convince some Costco fans. It makes sense that a luxury goods maker would deny such a thing anyway. It'd harm their brand value if it were well know consumers could buy virtually the same product for less than half the cost.
Costco is tight-lipped about who makes their French vodka. Part of that's got to be contractual terms. Whoever the maker is, Grey Goose or anyone else, doesn't want their brand value reduced by people knowing the same stuff is available for a fraction of the price under a different name at Costco. Part of it is presumably also Costco adding to the mystique of its in-house brand.
Time for the Test of Taste!
I bought a bottle of Kirkland vodka some time ago to give it a try. It's a solid vodka that punches well above its lower-middle range price. Then I was re-gifted a bottle of Grey Goose. I figured it's time to put them head to head!
For this comparison I tasted the two vodkas neat. You can see in the picture above/left I simply poured them into shot glasses. I then alternated sips.
Overall the two vodkas are very similar. I can see why so many Costco fans wonder if Kirkland vodka really is Grey Goose. In tasting them side-by-side like this I found that the tastes are not exact. They're very close, but not identical.
That doesn't rule out that they're produced by the same maker, of course. It makes sense that if Grey Goose does make Kirkland vodka, they alter the recipe slightly. Again, though, Grey Goose denies they produce Kirkland Signature French vodka.
So, what's the difference? I actually liked the Kirkland Signature vodka better! The two have a very similar character, but Kirkland has a rounder character to its flavor while Grey Goose's delivers a sharper alcohol burn.