Stolichnaya () is a vodka made of wheat and rye grain. It originated in the Soviet Union in 1938. There are two versions of the vodka: the version found outside Russia is made in Latvia, while the version found inside Russia is made there. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union the ownership of Stolichnaya has been disputed between the Russian state-owned company FKP Soyuzplodoimport and SPI Group, a private company chartered in Luxembourg. SPI Group have sold their version as Stoli since 2022.
Production process
Fermentation of Stolichnaya starts with wheat and rye grains and artesian water, and takes about 60 hours. Once fermentation is complete, the resulting liquid is distilled three times, to a strength of 96.4% alcohol by volume (ABV). That spirit is diluted to bottling strength using more artesian well water. It is then filtered through quartz, sand, activated charcoal and, finally, through cloth.
SPI, the company controlled by Yuri Shefler, produces Stolichnaya in Latvia at Latvijas Balzams, using Latvian water but alcohol from a distillery in Tambov, Russia. In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, SPI announced that they would begin sourcing all of their alcohol from Slovakia instead of Russia.
Name and logo
The name Stolichnaya is pronounced in Russian . The word is the adjectival form of столица (stolitsa), meaning "capital city". The Soyuzplodoimport bottle label features the words "Stolichnaya Vodka" in gold cursive script over a drawing of a Moscow landmark, the recently rebuilt Hotel Moskva.
In March 2022 the Stoli Group changed the name of its vodka to its nickname, Stoli, as a "direct response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine".
History
Stolichnaya has its origins in the Moscow State Wine Warehouse No. 1 which was opened in 1901 by the authorities to ensure higher quality vodka production.
There is confusion about the actual birth date of Stolichnaya vodka. The earliest confirmed production date is 1948, but the label design clearly predates 1946. It is likely that it was created by V. G. Svirida around 1944. However, there is a trademark registration dated 1938, which is sometimes quoted as another birth date.
In 1953 Stolichnaya was introduced at the international trade show in Bern and received a gold medal. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the product was made in Ukraine for export.
In 1972 the PepsiCo company struck a barter agreement with the government of the Soviet Union, in which PepsiCo was granted exportation and Western marketing rights to Stolichnaya vodka, in exchange for importation and Soviet marketing of Pepsi-Cola. This exchange led to Pepsi-Cola being the first American consumer product to be produced, marketed and sold in the USSR. Directly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Stolichnaya vodka continued to be produced for export in several of the ex-Soviet republics, including Ukraine. The bottles retained their Soviet-era labels.
During the dissolution of the Soviet Union, steps were taken to transform state-owned Stolichnaya producer VO Sojuzplodoimport (later VVO Sojuzplodoimport) into a privately held company. Since the early 90s, the personnel of the vodka factory and control of the trademarks had been managed by VAO Sojuzplodoimport (later: VZAO Sojuzplodoimport). In 1997 they were transferred to ZAO Sojuzplodimport which, in turn, sold them to the SPI (Spirits) group in 1999.
The SPI Group is a private company chartered in Luxembourg, founded and owned by Russian billionaire Yuri Shefler, that distributes a wide variety of Russian spirits, having purchased a number of former Soviet brands and operations. While FKP produces in Kaliningrad, Russia (for the Russian market and the Benelux market), SPI Group distributes and produces from Latvia. FKP Sojuzplodoimport and the SPI Group have been in dispute over the ownership of various trademarks since 2003.
Trademark ownership and production rights
Since 2003, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Stolichnaya trademark has been the subject of dispute between distributors, predominantly the SPI Group and Russian state-owned Sojuzplodoimport. The SPI group has held the rights from the legal successor as a result of a privatisation, while the Russian government holds that the privatisation has never been fully effected.