Vodka: Commodity Number One

Let us raise our glasses, let’s move them together!
A toast to the Muses, a toast to reason!
—Pushkin, Bacchic Song (1825)

From ancient times, wine has added pleasure and animation to talk between friends. In those countries where vines are cultivated, in the homeland of wine, people did not gulp it down. Draining one’s glass did not mean “knocking it back.” One sought the bouquet in wine just as in talk one seeks the truth. Drinkers savor...