Russian super-premium vodka is a personal project of Maxim Kashirin, head of the Simple holding. The presentation took place on October 4, 2016, it was symbolic – exactly 185 years after Pushkin completed the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin”.
Simple is a leading player in the Russian wine market and the owner of one of the most impressive wine cases in Europe. The holding has a wide sales network throughout Russia and has created a well-established logistics chain of European supplier companies.
Simple was founded in 1994 as a distribution company by two then young entrepreneurs Anatoly Korneev and Maxim Kashirin. During this time, it has become the largest Russian importer and distributor of wines, most of which are Italian. And it is one of the five largest suppliers of French, Argentinean and South African wines. The annual income of the holding, according to SPARK, is about six billion rubles.
Simple’s activities are diversified: in addition to the distribution business, the holding owns a sommelier school, the Simple Wine News magazine about wine, the Simple Travel travel company, which organizes gastro tours to the world’s wine-growing regions, and the Grand Cru wine store chain.
The history of vodka “Onegin”
After the presentation of the Onegin brand, the head of Simple, Maxim Kashirin, gave an interview to an Izvestia journalist, in which he told the story of the appearance of the trademark.
As it turned out, the idea of creating his own brand came to him back in 2007, but the crisis prevented the implementation. Why vodka? Because Maxim Sergeevich considers it a traditional Russian drink, unlike wine, cognac, whiskey, the quality of which is much higher in foreign products. The whole world quite rightly considers vodka a part of Russian culture. Therefore, Mr. Kashirin chose her.
He decided on the name based on his own conviction: the consumer does not choose a taste, aroma or idea, but an emotion. All successful brands, the same “Five Lakes” or “White Birch” are skillfully selected emotions. Close, sincere, understandable. And he decided to choose an emotion, the basis of which is not cold, like in “Count Ledoff”, not status and luxury, like in “Russian Diamond” or “Empire”, not soulful birch trees with lakes.
He chose the Russian cultural code. Pushkin and “Eugene Onegin” as an encyclopedia of Russian life. And while working on the project, by his own admission, I re-read “Eugene Onegin” several times. Pavel Kashirin says: “It just seems that Pushkin wrote the high society events of the XNUMXth century, in fact it is about us today, and about something that can never become outdated.”
Brand features
The design was thought out to the smallest detail by specially created focus groups, and embodied by the international branding agency Mildberry.
Another illustration of the brand is Onegin Rockies. This is also the idea of Maxim Kashirin: if rum and whiskey are drunk with ice, then vodka of this class can also be drunk.
Slightly noticeable sweetness, roundness and a pleasant aftertaste are the result of a masterful blend and the right technology. The composition of the drink is fully described on the label: honey distillate, almonds, white raisins and bourbon vanilla. The dose is microscopic – 0,15% by volume, but it was she who determined the style and emphasized the individuality of the drink.
“Onegin” is produced at the Ulyanovsk distillery “Jupiter” in small batches, sold in SimpleWine wineries, delivered to HoReCa.
Features of vodka “Onegin”
Onegin (40%) is a perfectly transparent super-premium class drink with a delicate aroma, in which notes of raisins and vanilla are barely audible. The balanced sweetish taste is soft, and the long aftertaste has a hint of almonds. Vodka is served with ice – as an aperitif, and chilled to 6-8 ° C with all types of snacks and dishes of Russian cuisine, with game, meat and fish.
