Zyr Vodka Founder Plans To Move Production From Russia To Southwest Miami-Dade
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The halt of Russian-imported goods has one American-owned liquor company seeing its product banned from shelves.
"Two weeks ago on that Monday, well before Biden banned the importation of Russian vodka, stores made the choice to remove things from Russia," David Katz said.
One of the things removed was Katz's pride and joy, Zyr Vodka.
"I woke up to learn, over 1,000 accounts of mine, many of them dear friends, just removed the bottles from the shelves," he told CBS4.
Katz's love for hockey drew him to study in Russia, live there for a number of years and later craft and import Russian vodka.
He never thought Russia would invade Ukraine, coincidentally, a country where he gets cork for his product.
"I created Zyr, it's my recipe. It's a winter wheat and rye blend, which has won every review in the country, including the Russian Minister of Agriculture rated brands," he explained.
Now because of the conflict, Katz is looking to move operations to the U.S.
"So, when you start banning, American owned, Florida based, you don't know if its ownership, where it's made. You don't know my little company will certainly feel it."
That's why Katz is forming a partnership with Big Cypress Distillery to bottle Zyr Vodka within six months.
"It's going to be a little bit of work because it's a very well-made vodka so we're going to have to figure out how to get a vodka taste pretty much identical to that," said Fernando Plata, Big Cypress Distillery co-founder.
Distillation will run out of Big Cypress until the partnership can find a bigger facility to ramp up production up to 500,000 bottles a year for Zyr Vodka. Katz also plans to source American wheat from his wife's family farm up in Ohio.
"Obviously became a victim of events well beyond his control," said Economic Development Council South Miami-Dade Chief Strategy Officer Peter England.
The EDC is working to find Katz incentives to recreate the company domestically.
"We hope that the net result of that is that something that is going to be great for him and as important as great for Miami-Dade County," England added.
In a time of so much change, Katz sees the bright side – a chance to create a new distillery facility and potentially make it a destination for people to visit.
"Now, 'Oh wow, you're made locally, you're made in Florida.' So I think we double, need to be prepared to double sales," Katz added.