I just got punk'd. By Robert De Niro. Well, more of a lend, really. A leg pull.

I'm in the Drawing Room of De Niro's The Greenwich, in New York, and the legendary actor, restaurateur and businessman is telling me about the time he tried to make vodka in Manhattan a few years ago. "We found a place to grow the wheat … but it just didn't work," he deadpans. "The Manhattan soil … it's tricky."

Really? I ask above the social static in the room. We're in one of the world's most densely populated cities. De Niro leans in, a consoling hand on my shoulder, and lets me in. "I'm joking," he grins. "It's a joke."

As it happens, vodka is the reason I'm in the same room as the Hollywood great – in another comic turn as an ageing funnyman in The Comedian, released in the US last month. Not vodka  cultivated in the Big Apple. You can just picture it: Central Park asway with sun-kissed fields of cereal.

Rather, we're here toasting the ultra-premium brand VDKA 6100, handcrafted in Reporoa, New Zealand, using cow's whey. Moreover, there's an Australian company, Artisan Spirit Merchants (ASM), behind the spirit, which chose New York to debut more than two years ago. In fact, ASM introduced VDKA 6100 to Australia only last year.

"We were always going to launch in New York first," says ASM general manager Nick Mann. "It's a bit of a cliche (if you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere) but New York, while a huge vodka market, is also the [world's] toughest."

The company is seriously well backed, which helps. Started by three British mates in 2004, ASM has evolved, largely through the success of its top-selling Vodka O. Today, it has several key hospitality industry players on board as well as corporate heavy-hitters including ex-Qantas chairman Margaret Jackson and entertainment mogul James Packer.

Undoubtedly, part of VDKA 6100's New York assault hinged on De Niro's involvement, which Packer facilitated through their business dealings. In 2015, Crown Resorts reportedly bought a 20 per cent stake in the Japanese restaurant chain Nobu, co-owned by De Niro.

While the Oscar winner's input was limited, it was instrumental. De Niro, a vodka drinker, was consulted on branding, packaging and positioning. Leading New York designer Joe Doucet was also involved, creating the bottle's masculine contours, opting for a more muscular "counter-intuitive" shape to differentiate it.

"[VDKA 6100] tasted great and I liked the story behind it, it's that simple," says De Niro of the role he played, including voicing a recent series of television commercials.

Gap in the market

Creating an ultra-premium brand also motivated ASM to tackle New York first over home soil. "It's not a cluttered market but it's difficult because it's a highly emotional purchase," explains Mann, who sees VDKA 6100 in the same space as Belvedere and Grey Goose. "We saw a gap in the market."

So far, it seems the gamble has paid off with VDKA 6100, so named because it represents the distance between the territorial waters of New Zealand and the US. It now features on the cocktail menus of some 2000 bars, including in New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and is making inroads into retail markets.

VDKA 6100 has cracked some swanky US bars, places like dullboy in Jersey City and Hop Sing Laundromat in Philadelphia. At Manhattan's Bar Goto, we try it in a Sakura Martini, Yuzu-Calpico Fizz and Matcha Milk Punch. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of ASM's biggest corporate accounts, we have a Crime of Passion. At Eleven Madison Park, a Maize Runner accompanies a seared scallop and corn dish.

Australian-born Sam Ross, the owner of speak-easy-styled Attaboy in New York's Lower East Side, uses it in his Late Night Reviver and Too Soon? cocktails. "We try and put out the best product possible," says Ross, who is also using VDKA 6100 in his new Brooklyn bar, Diamond Reef.

In Australia, the rollout has been quicker than expected, boosted by its New York story and almost 30 per cent growth in super-premium vodka sales last year. "Australia has surpassed our expectations twofold," says Mann.

ASM is also pushing VDKA 6100 into Asia (including China), the Middle East and the duty-free market. "In five years, we want to be known and respected as a global brand," says Mann.

The writer travelled to New York as a guest of ASM.