Table Of ContentADVANCE PRAISE FOR VODKA M “A vivid, pungent, and savory book.” —P. J. O’Rourke
A Raise your glass
T
“Make mine a double! I’ll be reading Vodka more than once, and I don’t understand how U VVVOOODDDKKKAAA to the story of how vodka
‘Colorless, Odorless, Flavorless’ got into the subtitle of this vivid, pungent, and savory book.” S became our favorite spirit.
—P. J. O’ROURKE
“Fantastic. Victorino Matus has written one of the most interesting books of the year. V
It began as rotgut medicine in Medieval
Vodka is a great story, and he tells it perfectly. I got so absorbed,
O Russia—Ivan the Terrible liked it, Peter the
I missed cocktail hour. Buy three copies.”
Great loved it—but this neutral grain alcohol
—TUCKER CARLSON
D has become our uncontested king of spirits,
“An excellent book on a spirit remarkable for being unremarkable, Vodka is a brilliant social with over a thousand brands fi ghting for market
K
history, an incisive study of business and marketing, and a lot of fun to read.” share, bottled in glass skulls, Tommy guns, and
—MICHAEL RUHLMAN, New York Times–bestselling and James Beard– and IACP A bulletproof bottles and fl avored with pears, cur-
Award–winning author of The Soul of a Chef, The French Laundry Cookbook rants, or açaí berries. But it wasn’t always so. For
Victorino Matus is senior editor at The Weekly two centuries America drank the brown stuff:
(with Thomas Keller), Charcuterie, and Ruhlman’s Twenty.
Standard. He has written for the New York Post, the rum and whiskey that gave us colonial rum-
“Vodka made me laugh, learn, think, and savor the journey. On every page, I thought: I want
Washingtonian magazine, Wall Street Journal, runners, the Whiskey Rebellion, and Bourbon
F
one now. Put this great book on its own shelf with a tall bottle of vodka next to it. You’ll love it.”
Washington Post, and Salon.com and provided l County, Kentucky. So how did Russia’s “little
a
commentary on CNN, NPR, C-SPAN, and The —LARRY MILLER, actor, comedian, and host of This Week with Larry Miller v water” unseat our favorite hooch?
o
Laura Ingraham Show among others. He lives in “Matus’s book is anything but bland. He guides us through the history of how this colorless r H Victorino Matus takes us on an incredible
l
Arlington, Virginia, with his wife and their two e o visual journey from vodka’s humble American
drink became the most popular tipple in America by mixing a cocktail of anthropological insight s w
children. Visit him at VicMatus.com. s origins in a Depression-era Connecticut fac-
and reportorial legwork, dashed with a perfect measure of tongue-in-cheek wit.”
S a
tory—using the family recipe from a poor
—MAX WATMAN, author of Harvest and Chasing the White Dog p C
@VictorinoMatus i Russian exile named Vladimir Smirnov—
ri o
“With a business writer’s acumen, Victorino Matus carefully brings the cloudy world of the t lo through its glamorous rise to fame at the hands
C
international vodka industry into focus. Both millionaire distillers and mom-and-pop operations r of James Bond and Sex and the City to today’s
invite him inside their world, where he explores super premiums, celebrity endorsements, o le craft distillery movement. You’ll see in clear,
n s
the fl avor craze, and the seamier side of the industry. Part history lesson and part marketing q s intoxicating detail how hippie culture, women’s
,
u O
examination, Vodka will make you think twice the next time you look at a bottle of it.” e lib, and an absolutely ingenious Swedish com-
—KEVIN C. FITZPATRICK, author of Under the Table re do pany all played a part in transforming the booze
d r into a status symbol.
“Vodka comes alive in the hands of Victorino Matus, who blends historical background A le By 1976 the war had ended: Vodka offi cially
Cover design by Bret Kerr with pop culture. This book will please casual readers and cocktail geeks alike. s
m s
Cover photograph licensed by Shutterstock.com Reading Vodka might not be as satisfying as drinking it—but it comes close!” e , How a Colorless, became our favorite spirit. Today a third of all
Author photograph courtesy of The Weekly cocktails contain it, and last year 157 million
r
Standard —MARK SPIVAK, author of Iconic Spirits and Moonshine Nation ic Odorless, Flavorless Spirit gallons of the stuff racked up $5.6 billion in
a
sales. Here is the crisply distilled, bracing story
Conquered America
of how entrepreneurs defi ed the odds and
Lyons Press is an imprint of
Globe Pequot Press turned medieval medicine into a multibillion-
Guilford, Connecticut
dollar industry.
LyonsPress.com
Victorino Matus
LYONS
PRESS
Vodka_final.indd 1 5/8/14 12:19 PM
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR VODKA M “A vivid, pungent, and savory book.” —P. J. O’Rourke
A Raise your glass
T
“Make mine a double! I’ll be reading Vodka more than once, and I don’t understand how U VVVOOODDDKKKAAA to the story of how vodka
‘Colorless, Odorless, Flavorless’ got into the subtitle of this vivid, pungent, and savory book.” S became our favorite spirit.
—P. J. O’ROURKE
“Fantastic. Victorino Matus has written one of the most interesting books of the year. V
It began as rotgut medicine in Medieval
Vodka is a great story, and he tells it perfectly. I got so absorbed,
O Russia—Ivan the Terrible liked it, Peter the
I missed cocktail hour. Buy three copies.”
Great loved it—but this neutral grain alcohol
—TUCKER CARLSON
D has become our uncontested king of spirits,
“An excellent book on a spirit remarkable for being unremarkable, Vodka is a brilliant social with over a thousand brands fi ghting for market
K
history, an incisive study of business and marketing, and a lot of fun to read.” share, bottled in glass skulls, Tommy guns, and
—MICHAEL RUHLMAN, New York Times–bestselling and James Beard– and IACP A bulletproof bottles and fl avored with pears, cur-
Award–winning author of The Soul of a Chef, The French Laundry Cookbook rants, or açaí berries. But it wasn’t always so. For
Victorino Matus is senior editor at The Weekly two centuries America drank the brown stuff:
(with Thomas Keller), Charcuterie, and Ruhlman’s Twenty.
Standard. He has written for the New York Post, the rum and whiskey that gave us colonial rum-
“Vodka made me laugh, learn, think, and savor the journey. On every page, I thought: I want
Washingtonian magazine, Wall Street Journal, runners, the Whiskey Rebellion, and Bourbon
F
one now. Put this great book on its own shelf with a tall bottle of vodka next to it. You’ll love it.”
Washington Post, and Salon.com and provided l County, Kentucky. So how did Russia’s “little
a
commentary on CNN, NPR, C-SPAN, and The —LARRY MILLER, actor, comedian, and host of This Week with Larry Miller v water” unseat our favorite hooch?
o
Laura Ingraham Show among others. He lives in “Matus’s book is anything but bland. He guides us through the history of how this colorless r H Victorino Matus takes us on an incredible
l
Arlington, Virginia, with his wife and their two e o visual journey from vodka’s humble American
drink became the most popular tipple in America by mixing a cocktail of anthropological insight s w
children. Visit him at VicMatus.com. s origins in a Depression-era Connecticut fac-
and reportorial legwork, dashed with a perfect measure of tongue-in-cheek wit.”
S a
tory—using the family recipe from a poor
—MAX WATMAN, author of Harvest and Chasing the White Dog p C
@VictorinoMatus i Russian exile named Vladimir Smirnov—
ri o
“With a business writer’s acumen, Victorino Matus carefully brings the cloudy world of the t lo through its glamorous rise to fame at the hands
C
international vodka industry into focus. Both millionaire distillers and mom-and-pop operations r of James Bond and Sex and the City to today’s
invite him inside their world, where he explores super premiums, celebrity endorsements, o le craft distillery movement. You’ll see in clear,
n s
the fl avor craze, and the seamier side of the industry. Part history lesson and part marketing q s intoxicating detail how hippie culture, women’s
,
u O
examination, Vodka will make you think twice the next time you look at a bottle of it.” e lib, and an absolutely ingenious Swedish com-
—KEVIN C. FITZPATRICK, author of Under the Table re do pany all played a part in transforming the booze
d r into a status symbol.
“Vodka comes alive in the hands of Victorino Matus, who blends historical background A le By 1976 the war had ended: Vodka offi cially
Cover design by Bret Kerr with pop culture. This book will please casual readers and cocktail geeks alike. s
m s
Cover photograph licensed by Shutterstock.com Reading Vodka might not be as satisfying as drinking it—but it comes close!” e , How a Colorless, became our favorite spirit. Today a third of all
Author photograph courtesy of The Weekly cocktails contain it, and last year 157 million
r
Standard —MARK SPIVAK, author of Iconic Spirits and Moonshine Nation ic Odorless, Flavorless Spirit gallons of the stuff racked up $5.6 billion in
a
sales. Here is the crisply distilled, bracing story
Conquered America
of how entrepreneurs defi ed the odds and
Lyons Press is an imprint of
Globe Pequot Press turned medieval medicine into a multibillion-
Guilford, Connecticut
dollar industry.
LyonsPress.com
Victorino Matus
LYONS
PRESS
Vodka_final.indd 1 5/8/14 12:19 PM
Vodka
Vodka_3pp.indd 1 4/30/14 9:07 AM
Vodka_3pp.indd 2 4/30/14 9:07 AM
Vo d k a
How a Colorless, Odorless, Flavorless Spirit
Conquered America
Victorino Matus
Lyons Press
Guilford, Connecticut
An imprint of Globe Pequot Press
Vodka_3pp.indd 3 4/30/14 9:08 AM
Copyright © 2014 by Victorino Matus
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may
be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission
should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions
Department, PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.
Lyons Press is an imprint of Globe Pequot Press.
Absolut® vodka, Absolut country of Sweden vodka & logo, Absolut,
Absolut bottle design, and Absolut calligraphy are trademarks
owned by the Absolut Company AB.
Frontispiece: Licensed by Shutterstock.com
Text design: Sheryl P. Kober
Layout: Kirsten Livingston
Project editor: Julie Marsh
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Matus, Victorino.
Vodka : how a colorless, odorless, flavorless spirit conquered America
/ Victorino Matus. — First edition.
pages cm
Summary: “How risk-taking entrepreneurs defied the odds and turned
medieval medicine into a multibillion-dollar industry”— Provided by
publisher.
ISBN 978-0-7627-8699-2 (hardback)
1. Vodka—United States. 2. Distilleries—United States. 3.
Distilling industries—United States. I. Title.
TP607.V6M37 2014
338.4'76635—dc23
2014015139
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Vodka_3pp.indd 4 4/30/14 9:08 AM
To KaTe
Vodka_3pp.indd 5 4/30/14 9:08 AM
After the first glass of vodka
you can accept just about anything
of life even your own mysteriousness
—Frank O’Hara, “As Planned”
Vodka_3pp.indd 6 4/30/14 9:08 AM
Contents
Introduction ix
1 “A Plunge Off the Very Deep End” 1
2 Vodki 11
3 Breathless Charm 27
4 Absolut Power 45
5 The Dutch Masters 63
6 SKYY’s the Limit 81
7 The Greatest Vodka Story Ever Told 95
8 The Legend of Tito Beveridge 107
9 Hollywood 121
10 Las Vegas 139
11 Flavor Country 157
12 Backlash 175
13 Pioneering Spirit 187
14 The Middle Kingdom 213
Epilogue 227
Appendix: The Vodka Boom 237
Acknowledgments 240
Select Bibliography 243
Index 245
Vodka_3pp.indd 7 4/30/14 9:08 AM
Vodka_3pp.indd 8 4/30/14 9:08 AM
