"At least 11 states, including Oregon, North Carolina and West Virginia, have banned the sale of Russian-made alcohol to denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine," Joseph Pisani reports for The Wall Street Journal. Local bans are cropping up too, such as in Montgomery County, Maryland. All the states and counties with such bans control liquor sales or have government-owned liquor stores.
Most states have been careful to specify the removal of specific brands such as Russian Standard, Hammer & Sickle, and Ustianochka. That's because Russian vodka sales in the U.S. have plummeted nearly 79% since 2011, and now account for about 1% of sales nationwide, Jordan Valinsky reports for CNN. Other brands with Russian names, like Smirnoff and Stolichnaya, are actually produced elsewhere, Pisani reports. Smirnoff is owned by a British company and manufactured in Illinois, while Stoli is made in Latvia and headquartered in Luxembourg.
However, some bars are pouring out Smirnoff and/or Stoli as a gesture of solidarity. Terry Compton, co-owner of Uncorked Wine & Spirits in Shawnee, Okla., pulled Stoli and Russian Standard from the shelves on Saturday. Though he's aware that Stoli is manufactured and bottled in Latvia, Compton "said he removed it because Stoli’s labels say it uses wheat from Russia, where it’s distilled, and then taken to Latvia," Pisani reports. "A spokeswoman for Stoli said a small amount of wheat comes from Russian farmers, which it plans to stop doing."
Compton said he's replacing the Stoli and Russian Standard with Ukrainian-made Khor. "We want to do everything we can, even if it’s a small part, to support the Ukrainian people," he told Pisani.
No comments:
Post a Comment