Smirnoff Red

Smirnoff began in Moscow in the 1860s, when Pyotr Smirnov founded his vodka distillery under the trade name PA Smirnov. He pioneered charcoal filtration in the 1870s, and by 1886 his company held about two thirds of the Moscow market. After Pyotr died in 1898 his son Vladimir took over, and after the 1917 revolution the family left Russia. Vladimir renamed the vodka Smirnoff in Lwów in 1924, then sold the North American rights in 1933. John Martin of Heublein bought them in 1939, and the brand has belonged to Diageo since the 1997 merger of Grand Metropolitan and Guinness.