Vodka Museum Tour with transport (excursion and vodka tasting)

Vodka is an important component of Russian life, an element of national identity and everyday culture. We invite you to visit the Vodka Museum and feel the atmosphere of long-gone centuries. You will get to know the story of vodka (the real stuff!), when its manufacture began and the role it has played in the history of Russian civilization. You will learn that the process of wine distillation (the original name for vodka production) was very up-to-date even centuries ago. You will be shown vodka bottles of different sizes, from shkalik (or kosushka) to shtof and quarter. The pride of the Museum is the bottle produced at the Kronshtadt table wine distillery in 1862. The museum guides can explain what chekushka is, how large the traditional Russian cup (charka, cheporuha) is, how drinking houses, or kabaks, are different from tractirs that appeared in Russia in the 1880´s, and what kinds of vodka were the most popular among members of different social groups. The choices were very wide: «Smirnovskaya», «Petrovskaya», «Popovka» (produced at the distillery of widow Popova) and «Pshenichnaya» (wheat), «Russkoe Dobro» (Russian goods) and «DvoinayaGor´kaya» (double bitter)… This list could continued forever… In the beginning of the 20th century there were more than 5000 wineries in Russia located in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan as well as in other cities.

4 hours