Polugar is Russian vodka as it existed before the state destroyed it. Until the late 19th century, Russia's grain spirit was called bread wine — pot-distilled at low proof, oily and weighty, smelling of the fresh-baked bread it came from, closer to a white whisky than to the neutral spirit we call vodka today. In 1895 Tsar Alexander III, monopolizing the trade, ordered every pot still in the country destroyed and restricted distillation to taxed government column stills. The old style vanished. A century later, vodka historian Boris Rodionov found the original recipes — some dating to 1745 — in documents at the Russian National Museum. Because Russian law still forbids the method, he and his sons restored an old distillery in a forest in Poland, reconstructing copper pot stills from 18th-century drawings that look more like Cognac alembics than anything in a modern vodka plant. Every Polugar ferments its own wash from malted grain, triple distills in those pots, clarifies with fresh egg whites in the old winemaking manner, and filters through birch charcoal, bottled at 38.5% ABV with natural spring water. The range runs from single-grain bread wines — Classic Rye, Wheat, Barley, Buckwheat, Single Malt Rye — through the numbered infusions of the Russian nobility: Garlic & Pepper, Caraway, Honey & Allspice, Horseradish, Juniper, and Dry Cherry. Spirits Review called the barley a new standard for unaged grain spirits, "delicious enough to make a brave Russian weep." Built for the zakuski table, ice cold, with herring and black bread.

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