The Ouk-rra-i-nah Story by Warren Metzler Table of Contents
2. Deciding to sell
In February of 2005, about three months after I’d returned to Los Angeles, I received an unsolicited magazine in the mail; sent from The Wine House, one of the liquor stores at which I shop. I read it. And one of the articles discussed premium vodkas. Several items in that article caught my attention. One was that premium vodkas sales had been significantly increasing in the previous two to three years. And another was that vodka sales were the number one category of distilled spirits in the US, 26% share of the market. Rum products ran a distant second, only 14% of the market; and everything else, which included scotch, whiskey, gin, etc., ran behind. Then I noticed an omission. That article described all the top brands of vodka sold in the US, and Kauffman vodka was not mentioned.
I promptly called The Wine House and dialed the owner’s extension. To my pleasant surprise he answered. I introduced myself, mentioned the magazine and the article on vodkas, briefly described my trip to Russia, and asked him if he would be interested in importing Kauffman vodka. He declined that suggestion, but then made a fascinating comment. He told me that if I obtained exclusive import rights for Kauffman for the US, he was certain I could find a major importer who would work with me on the project.
I thanked him for his time, hung up, and wondered about his suggestion. And the more I wondered, the more I felt led to investigate. I went on the Internet and searched for Kauffman Vodka. I eventually found it mentioned on the web site of a liquor store in England. I called that store, and they provided me with a phone number and contact name for the distributor from whom they bought Kauffman. I called that person, and amazingly she gave me the cell phone number for Kauffman’s representative in the UK. I called him. He answered. I explained my interest. He told me it was his impression the company that made Kauffman did not yet have representation in the US. He further stated that if I sent him an email describing my interest, he would forward it to the appropriate person in the Moscow home office.
I sent an email, received verification from him he’d forwarded it, and sat back and waited. And no reply came.
After a few weeks, I received an impulse to do a taste test. I took out the bottle of Kauffman, the gift bottle I’d received from Alla in Zhitomir, and a bottle of another Russian vodka I’d received as a gift several years prior. The Kauffman’s still tasted good, the Russian vodka was okay, and the Zhitomir vodka was a nice surprise: it was a mixture of vodka and hot pepper; a spicy but pleasant taste.
I had committed to learn Russian during my November trip to the Ukraine. And since January —about two months prior— had been taking a lesson each week. So I took the bottle of spicy vodka to my next Russian class, and asked my instructor if she could translate the text on a small card that hung around the bottle’s neck. The text on that card was in Ukrainian, but my Instructor was able to determine the manufacturer was located in Zhitomir.
While in the Ukraine I had had five different guides / translators. One of them, who I will refer to as Igor, appeared more entrepreneurial then the other four did. And I had been corresponding with him by email since my return. The day after that Russian class, I sent Igor an email describing this pepper vodka. I told him I liked it, wanted to investigate importing it, and wondered if he would be interested in working with me on this project. He replied in the affirmative.
Not many days later he sent me an email indicating he had contacted the company, that its name was the Zhitomir State Vodka Distillery, and that he was having conversations with the sales manager, whose name is Vlad. Igor also told me the company was interested in exporting to the US, plus that they had a web site with pages in English. I promptly went to that web site. One item in particular caught my eye. The site listed Presidential Standard vodka, which cost six or seven times more than any of the other types of vodka sold by that company. I wondered if that was a pure vodka; and, further, if it might have a quality similar to that of Kauffman.
Every few days I would receive additional information from Igor. And then at some point I heard an inner voice say, “Nothing more can be accomplished until you go and taste their vodka.” So I decided to visit that country again. I wrote Igor about this possibility, and he agreed to accompany me to Zhitomir. I then decided I was committed to the process, submitted my application for a Federal Permit as an importer and wholesaler, and made appropriate travel arrangements. By this point, I had little expectation that I would hear from Kauffman. And I never did.