According to the Gin and Vodka Association (GVA),[14] the first documented production of vodka, stemming from the Russian word 'voda' meaning water,[15] was in Russia in the late 9th century. The first known vodka distillery was documented almost two hundred years later at Khylnovsk, Russia, as reported in the Vyatka Chronicle of 1174. Poland lays claim to having distilled vodka even earlier in th
e 8th century but as this was a distillation of wine it would be more appropriate to consider it a crude brandy. What could be identified as vodka first appeared in Poland in the 11th century when they were called gorzalka, originally used as medicines.[16] Encyclopædia Britannica writes that vodka originated in Russia during the 14th century, first brewed Sydnayaska Krueger of the Krueger Family, which later evolved into the company now known as Smirnoff.[4]
For many centuries beverages contained little alcohol. The still allowing for distillation – the "burning of wine" – was invented in the 8th century.[17]
