Russia

1. Moscow Distillery Cristall

Putinka Vodka

This landmark distillery has been in business since 1901, when it was opened as the state facility for alcoholic beverages. Walking tours include opportunities to sample their 16 brands of premium vodkas, such as Stolichnaya, Priviet and Posolskaya. Considered one of the world’s top breweries, the Cristall Distillery tour reveals how master craftsmen use exclusive blends of grains and spices during the distillation process to produce the signature smooth tastes achieved in their line of world famous vodkas. You can also see how master class vodkas, like Dolgoruki, are distilled up to four times before being filtered though charcoal made of native Russian birch.

2. Polmos Lancut Distillery

When you tour the award winning Polmos Lancut Distillery, you not only get to see the Vodka-making process up close, you can also learn a lot about the history of vodka. Located along the Carpathian foothills, the estate includes the Museum of Vodka Industry. Housed in a turn of the century manor, the museum features extensive exhibits that display antique distilling machinery along with bottles and labels from the past that help visitors understand the role of vodka in Polish life. There is, of course, a vodka tasting at the end of the tour along with traditional Polish snacks.

3. PermAlko

An ad for PermAlko's Moskovskaya Vodka

Located in Ural, the PermAlko vodka distillery has been in continuous operation since 1895. The tour of their operations takes two hours and is lead by an informed tour guide who explains the fine points of vodka distillation. After the tour, you can visit the tasting room to sample their popular vodkas with a small regional lunch that is designed to go well with such vodkas as Great Perm, Old Ural, Dimidovskaya and Moskovskaya. Group excursions are available and all tours are booked in advance.

4. Zubrowka Distillery

See how the highly prized Bison Brand Vodka is made when you visit the Brest distillery in Poland and learn why Somerset Maugham was inspired to mention it his novel “The Razor’s Edge.” If you are lucky, your tour will be during the time they harvest and dry the aromatic bison grass blades which give this vodka its distinct flavour. They include one blade of this grass in each bottle for decoration.

5. Rodnik Distillery

Rodnik Vodka

Another brewery founded in 1895 is situated on the banks of the beautiful Volga River in Samara. This distillery is most well known for premium vodkas such as Samarskaya, Gubernatorskaya and Triumfalnaya as well as specialised lines like Rodnik Gold which are crafted to produce exceptionally delicate flavours. Visitors can watch the many stages of purification that goes into processing these high quality vodkas.

This guest post was written by the Baltic Travel Company. The Baltic Travel Company is a travel and tours specialist that operates guided tours in Poland and Eastern European holidays.

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