Guest Writer - Russia - Steph

From Stephanie Beach, writer of The Great Abyss

Stolichnaya

Stolichnaya is a Russian vodka made of wheat and rye grain. This also happens to be the vodka most purchased by Chris. It is fermented with artesial water from Samara, Russia and the Kaliningrad region. “Once fermentation is complete the resulting liquid is distilled four times to a strength of 96.4% ABV. This spirit is then diluted to bottling strength with more artesial well water. It is then filtered through quartz, sand, activated charcoal, and finally through woven cloth.”

A few interesting facts:
--The building in the background of the bottle’s image is that of Hotel Moskva, which is currently under re-construction.
--Stolichnaya is an adjective form of stolitsa, which means capital city in Russian.
--First confirmed production date was 1948, but could also be 1946, 1944 or 1936.
--In 1972 PepsiCo acquired the exportation and western marketing rights to this vodka in return for exchange, importation and Soviet marketing of Pepsi-Cola.
--There are 14 different varieties including various proofs and fruity flavours.
Information taken from Wikipedia