An Old Russian Vodka Distillery in Transition

Moscow's Cristall Distillery on the bank of the Yauza River for decades produced the eponymous premium vodka and since 2003 the popular brand Putinka, named after President Vladimir Putin.? 




But having met a similar fate to Moscow's iconic Red October chocolate factory, the downtown distillery near the Rimskaya metro station is now being converted into an upscale business district called Cristall-City that will include a hotel, a theater and a cluster of trendy loft apartments.? 





Originally opened in 1901 as Moscow State Wine Warehouse No. 1, the distillery was the initial manufacturer of world-renowned Stolichnaya vodka. During World War II, it adapted its production line to mass-produce about 7 million incendiary Molotov cocktails.? 





The distillery, which built a reputation in Soviet times for making high-quality vodka for the Kremlin elite, changed its name to Cristall in 1987. Last year the company finished transferring its production to the Moscow region village of Korystovo.





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