What is it like to be a Vodka Baron?

Question

What is it like to be a Vodka Baron? My good wannabe Russian Vodka Baron friend would like to know!

Answer 1

After state control over the production, import and sale of vodka was loosened, distillers, importers and retailers (in the form of kiosks), sprouted like mushrooms after a rainstorm. At present, according to renowned alcohol expert Igor Serdyuk, there are some 1,300 licensed vodka "players;" some 250 vodka brands are registered with Rospatent.

Meanwhile, "top dogs" in the market shift from month to month. The once-fashionable Kremlyovskaya, one-time sponsor of high-profile events like the Kremlin Cup tennis tournament, now struggles to stay afloat. Food and vodka baron Vladimir Dovgan built a lucrative business by introducing the notion of franchising to the Russian market, winning him a prestigious cover story in Russia Review earlier this year. But, at press time, there were reports that the famous Dovgan empire is being shaken by internal squabbles and debt. Vladimir Dovgan himself is currently trying to prove in court that his face, featured prominently in the corporation. s advertising and trademarks, has nothing at all to do with him.

One distiller that seems to be rising above the fray is Kristall, founded in 1901. Kristall, like all distilleries has been hit hard by bootlegging and government policies alike. At one point, annual production plummeted from 13 million dcl (prior to Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign) to just 2 million dcl. But the distillery recently introduced new (supposedly fake-proof) bottles and is staging a comeback.

Foreign Vodkas
One absurdity, played out in other consumer spheres with the opening of the market, was the mass influx of Western vodkas. Consumers in the land that invented vodka began flocking in droves to international favorites like Finlandia, Absolut and Smirnoff. But the state, hard pressed to protect local producers (and knowing a good tax base when it sees it) has started introducing severe licensing and excise taxes on imports -- a move which will surely raise import prices even further.

Another problem brought on by the influx of imports has been exemplified by the Smirnoff vs. Smirnov dispute. Internationally-known Smirnoff vodka is a trademark and recipe that, over the course of this century, passed from emigre descendants of 19th century vodka baron Pyotr Smirnov to now be owned by the huge distilled spirits company IDV. But, when IDV decided to go into the Russian market (returning Smirnoff to its homeland, so to speak), it ran into one Boris Smirnov, a former KGB agent who founded a "Trade House of Pyotr Smirnov. s Descendants" and started producing "Smirnovskaya" vodka. The trademark dispute over the right to use the name of Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov and the title of "Purveyor to his Majesty. s Imperial Court," has raged for three years. American Smirnoff has meanwhile started producing "Russian" vodka of its own at the St. Petersburg-based Liviz factory, while Boris Smirnov has, by most accounts, leveraged the "us vs. them" publicity of the long court battle to build his domestic vodka business.

Answer 2

it must be great, making sure that the Vodka tates right, must be a hard job to get though

you would have to have perfect taste buds

Answer 3

it would also be a hard job to get through too!