The Ouk-rra-i-nah Story by Warren Metzler Table of Contents
3. Returning to the Ukraine
One Wednesday in June, 2005, I arrived in Kiev and was met by Igor at the airport. We spent the night in a hotel in Kiev; and the next morning, Thursday, took a taxi to Zhitomir, arriving late morning (Zhitomir is about 70 miles west of Kiev).
Vlad, the sales manager who had been Igor’s regular contact, had received the opportunity to take an unexpected vacation at the time we were due in Zhitomir, and he had decided to take that opportunity. So he was not going to be available to meet with us. But he had arranged for us to talk with the director of the company, a Mr. Gertz. But once we arrived in Zhitomir and Igor called the vodka factory, he was told by Mr. Gertz’s secretary (whose name was Liliya) that Mr. Gertz had been called away to an important meeting in Kiev. Liliya then told Igor that Mr. Gertz would be back at the factory the following morning, and would then meet with us. She also invited us to meet with her later that afternoon.
So Igor and I decided to have lunch. We went to a nice Ukrainian restaurant called Korchma, where I had eaten during my previous visit there, in November 2004. To my very pleasant surprise, there on the menu was Presidential Standard vodka. So, obviously, I ordered a serving of it as one of my lunch items. And how fantastic it was! It tasted quite good; very smooth, no bite, and it appeared to taste as good as Kauffman. I interpreted that moment as a positive omen for that trip. (Incidentally, you can see pictures of Korchma in the Zhitomir photo tour on this site.)
Once we reached Liliya's office, and our introduction formalities were completed, we began to discuss the importing possibilities. And here I must mention something I have not yet presented. During the discussions Igor had with Vlad, the sales manager, before my trip to the Ukraine, Vlad had repeatedly mentioned to Igor a group of vodkas called "buds", claiming they were very popular. Igor had passed this information onto me, but I paid it little regard. But as we sat in Liliya's office that Thursday afternoon, she soon mentioned the buds vodkas and kept referring to them with great enthusiasm. So Igor and I agreed to taste them.
It was a delightful experience. The buds vodkas had an after-dinner liquor taste, not at all a vodka taste, which was very pleasant. And they were all quite smooth! I later discovered what gave all the buds vodkas their distinctive tastes: each type contained an alcohol tincture made from the buds of birch trees. The company made five different types of buds, but I liked two in particular: Lagidna and Elitna.