Back in the USSR
In the second part of his feature on Russian whisky, Erkin Touzmohamedovlooks at the period from Kruschev to the modern day
You can really try to hook the story of whisky to Soviet/Russian political history â and it makes some sense: Nikita Kruschev, the most dramatic
politician in contemporary history of this country to the inadequate and destructive deeds of Gorbachev.
If the first Soviet whisky was made on Stalinâs orders, the next one could have been something like a bourbon.
Nikita Kruschev, who followed Stalin and started improving relations with the west, was extremely fond of corn and made attempts to plant it everywhere, even in climates not suitable for pine treesâ¦
He met Nixon, then US President-to-be a couple of times and on one occasion Nixon introduced the Soviet leader to I.W.Harper, a nice American bourbon.
Kruschevâs reaction was a classic one. He is meant to have said: âYou Americans have a very nice whiskey, but you spoil it by putting too much ice into it â there is more ice than whiskeyâ.
Had Khrushev stayed and carried on with his state wide agricultural experiments in corn proliferation (there was even a joke he wanted to plant corn on the moon), heâd definitely order something like a bourbon to be made in the USSR.
The next Soviet whisky came almost 20 years later, and it was named âWhisky 73â.
About that time Soviet versions of other international categories of alcoholic drinks, appeared â Kapitansky Dzhin (Captainâs gin), Vermouth and some others. Whisky 73 was produced at the Kristall plant in Moscow, a leading Russian vodka producer, and a.....
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By Erkin Touzmahamedov
Section : Russian Whisky
Page number : 54
