Since its rise to prominence in the West during the second half of the 20th Century, vodka has been America’s workhorse spirit. Riding on the back of domestic whiskey’s gradual decline in the US post-World War II, the category grew steadily in popularity through the 1950s and ’60s, abetted by celebrity endorsements from the likes of Zsa Zsa Gabor and Groucho Marx, and of course the perception of sophistication engendered by the ‘shaken, not stirred’ vodka martini of Sean Connery’s James Bond.Eventually, in the 1970s, vodka achieved the position of best-selling spirit in th




