The 12 Days of Spirits, Day 1

How a $100 Vodka may be the best buy out there.

As much as I love the the Spirit of Christmas, I think I love the spirits of Christmas even more. Its the time of year that folks who make do with Johnny Walker Red all year (and there’s not a thing wrong with that whisky), loosen the purse springs a bit and suddenly there’s all sorts of cool things that are being unwrapped. And the fact is, even as you climb the price ladder spirits as a rule are a much better deal than wine: a standard $50 gift bottle of wine has about 5 servings, for $10 per belt. A $130 bottle of Scotch has 26 servings in it for $5 a glass—and trust me I know the name of every person who’s ever gifted me a $130 bottle of Scotch.So in preparation for the holidays over the next few weeks I’m going to pick 12 bottles that I think would just make splendid gifts for the drinker in your life—across all spectrums and price ranges. There one commonality? A guaranteed smile on the face of the lucky soul who gets them.DAY 1 – Grey Goose VXA few years back my father, a lifelong gin and scotch drinker, up and decided one day that he liked vodka the best and he hasn’t looked back. And the silver lining of his decision is that a few years back if I wanted to buy him an impressive present—say a 17-year old bottle of The Macallan—I was looking at over $200. Now, I can strut into the store and buy the very best bottle of vodka they stock and I’m only for a C-note. And I’m sorry, I like Stoli Elite just fine and I know there are some other ultra-premium Russian brands seemingly made solely for oligarchs, but Grey Goose VX is the finest vodka in the world. It takes the normal Goose (which many would say was heretofore arguably  the finest vodka in the world) and adds a 5% splash of unaged cognac sourced from the vines that surround Le Logis, Grey Goose’s spiritual home in the Grand Champagne region of Cognac. It’s smooth, or course, but it has an unrivalled mouthfeel that shines when it’s drunk neat or even in a snifter with a small cube. Even better, it’s packaged like a bottle that costs $300 and don’t think for a second that that doesn’t matter when you give a gift.