Before I write about buying and selling collections, I wanted to share this story with you. I am sure that most of you, at least you mini vodka collectors are aware of the Black label Smirnoff mini vodka, of which there are two versions. The rarest version is the one that says Made In Russia, while the more common one says Made In Moscow. These bottles are made by the Pierre Smirnoff Vodka Company of Hartford, Connecticut. Niether of these is the elusive Russian Smirnov I am talking about. The elusive Russian Smirnov mini vodka is from the Peter Arsenyvich Smirnov company in Moscow. The families are related but they split early in the 20th century.
The story begins with my early visits to Moscow in in the early 1990's. As my dealers and distributors began to learn of my passion for mini vodka bottles, I began to hear from them about a Russian Smirnov vodka company that was located somewhere in Moscow and was thought to have made a miniature vodka exactly the same as their big bottle. I began to search in all my usual haunts for this bottle and could never find it. A few of the shop owners told me that there never was a miniature of their vodka ever made. It did not discourage me. I continued my hunt. I could find no listing in a telephone directory or on the internet for a Smirnov vodka company anywhere in Moscow. Even my dealers and distributors in Moscow could not help me locate the factory or headquarters office. This went on for five years. After all these years, Marriott opened a couple of hotels in Moscow and I started to stay at one on them on my trips to Moscow. After a few trips I got to know the concierge pretty well and one day we were talking about some particular shop that I was looking for that sold miniature bottles that someone had told me about. That led to a conversation about my hobby of collecting miniature bottles and especially mini vodkas. Which, of course, led to the eternal question of Smirnov vodka. Lo and behold, the concierge told me he knew about such a place in Moscow. I asked him if he any contact information for this company and he said to come back tomorrow and perhaps he could have some information. I was really excited. After five years of searching, I finally found someone who might be able to help me.
The next day I went down to see him and sure enough. He had a telephone number for me. He said that this brother in law worked at this factory. When I went to Russia, I usually took my Russian engineer with me. He was originally a radion technician in the Ukraine when I met him and he was quite a good radio man. I was able to help him come to the US and go to work for my company. I had him call this number and ask for the marketing manager and see if we could arrange a visit. After a lengthy phone call with the marketing manager, it was finally settled that we could come and visit. The clincher for the visit was when my engineer told him that a "very important vice president from a big American company wanted to visit."
The appointment was set for the next day at 10:00AM. We got directions and the next day we took off for our visit. We rode the beautiful Moscow subway to the Octoberskay station as directed and then started our walk to the factory. We got near to where the factory was supposed to be and we could not see any signs for the factory. We walked around for thirty minutes looking for the factory. We had seen one big building with no windows and an 8 foot high metal fence all around it. I told Stan, my engineer that this had to be it, even though there was no sign to indicate it. We walked up to the guard shack at the only gate into the facility and Stan asked if this was the Smirnov distillery. After a long series of questions, the guard finally made a phone call and confirmed that we did indeed have an appointment and allowed us to enter. We got to the receptionist's desk and Stan explained who we were and that we had an appointment with the marketing manager. After a few minutes, we were told that Leonid, the marketing manage was not able to meet with his. Stan got really upset and got into a heated discussion with the receptionist when a well dressed man walks in carrying a briefcase and inquires as to what is the problem. I recognized immediately that he was someone important and I softly mentioned this to Stan. It turns out that he was the managing director of the company, Dimitry Sarvichkin. He immediately, upon learing what was going on, invited us in to his office. He spoke no English, so the conversation was one where Stan interpreted both ways. Dima was very cordial and after a few minutes, he made a couple of phone calls, and within minutes someone came into his office with 6 miniature Smirnov vodkas. The Holy Grail was finally in my hands. I wish I knew how to add pictures to this post but I don;t. You can see a picture of the Smirnov mini vodka on the opening page of my web site: http://www.minivodkaguy.com/. A few minutes after that, another person came into his office with something that looked a thick coffee table book. After it was presented to me, I realized it was container box for a beautiful color coffee table book describing the history of the Smrinov/ff family. It was loaded with great pictures and the text was in English. Also included in the container, was a box that when open had three beautiful 100ml bottles of Smirnov vodka. It was explained to me that both the mini and the 100ml were only given out at very important government social events and were never offered for sale. So I considered myself very fortunate to have finally found the most elusive Smirnov mini vodka bottle after almost 6 years of searching. Persistance paid off in this case.
By the way, the reason for no signage indicating who they were, as I am told, is that Moscow during the 1990's was a pretty wild place. The switch from a socialist government/economy to a market economy was still taking shape and had not been fully defined by this time. So many of the manufacturer's tried to keep as low a profile as they could so that the mafia and the tax police would have a more difficult time trying to find them and bother them for bribes and protection money.
Until next time, keep your eye out for that elusive bottle that you are looking for.
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