WINE & SPIRITS

(Page 2 of 2)

Cooper, who worked on Chambord for five years, has long dreamed of creating his own liquid gold. St. Germain is his baby. "I first tasted an elderflower cocktail at a bar in London in 2002," he says. "There were some elderflower syrups on the market, but they were all cloyingly sweet. I decided to try to make my own dry artisanal liqueur." In 2004 he began experimenting with fresh elderflowers. But extracting the juice without damaging the flowers and releasing bitter tannins proved a considerable challenge. "It took me three years to get it right," he says.

The distiller is even responsible for coming up with the signature cocktail I tasted that night at the launch. "It's like a Campari spritzer," he says, "the most ubiquitous cocktail in Italy."

To help spread the word about elderflower cocktails, which are popular in Britain but new to the American palate, Cooper hired top mixologists—Audrey Saunders, Simon Difford and Gary Regan—to come up with a slew of St. Germain-based cocktails. The new creations include the "French 77," which is combined with St. Germain and freshly squeezed lemon juice and Champagne. The "French 75" incorporates Plymouth gin and simple syrup. The French Apple Martini includes St. Germain, Green Apple Vodka and lemon juice, while the Can-Can Martini combines the sweet liqueur with vodka and dry vermouth.

A Francophone theme drives St. Germain's branding campaign, from the shape of the bottle to the suggested accoutrements, including antique hybrid stirring spoon-straws. Like Haeagen-Dazs exploiting the Scandinavian angle, this is an American brand playing off French cachet. They're selling a bohemian fantasy, and I, for one, am buying it—with a big cold glacon s'il vous plait.