opinionated alchemist

Well, sometimes I might be a bit... hot-headed, when it comes to some posts. And well - I was, when I wrote the article about Eristoff . Well Sander, one of the greatest "wine guys" I know, commented, that Eristoff is far longer on produced. And he is right. 1970's now It is even worse, I found a bottle from the 70's, which has the same "bell-shape" as Russian Standard... turns out, that Russian Standard is the villain, which copied the design... Well - but truth has to be said, Eristoff definitely changed their bottle design to a more pronounced bell-shape  after Russian Standard became successful. And their logo was also "adjusted" to a more Russian-Standard-like "feel". So here we are... I do apologise, if I have hurt non-existing feelings of a multi-national company. Hat-tip to Sander, who pointed me to my fallacy... I hate to be wrong... :)

Official press picture of bacardilimited There is no shortage of company copying and ripping off each other in the spirit business. Since the introduction of Grey Goose by the mastermind Sydney Frank, there are dozen of premium and premiumer vodka brands coming out every year [last was the battle between Absolut [Pernod-Ricard] of their premiumest Elix and the counter of Bacardi with their Grey Goose V.X. This is quite normal and not especially dirty. Maybe a bit naive, though. But look what I found [picture besides]. Bacardi has "now" an "authentic" vodka with a very "unique" bell-shaped bottle. With a wolf as logo shouting out. Do you see any resemblance? I found the parallels with Russian Standard fascinating. Even the marketing stories [yeah - please don't be so naive and believe anything what they are telling you about a recipe from the 18th century - all a marketing lie] are very similar [Georgian vs. Russian... but still]. The...