Skyy's sky-high sales since its inception in 1993 led Impact to name the vodka one of the hottest spirit brands of 1995. Tremendous sales of vodkas like Skyy and Absolut have helped to keep vodka consumption stable as whiskey sales continue to decline. Most people assume that Russia is the birthplace of vodka, probably in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, when distillation techniques reached eastern Europe from Persia. However, Poland also stakes a claim for vodka's beginnings. The word vodka has its derivations in the Polish zhizennia voda , later shortened to wodka .
Wheat is the primary ingredient for making vodka.
However, almost any agricultural product can, and has been, used, most notably beets, corn, rye and sugar beets. Despite the common belief, few vodkas are made from potatoes, though Luksusowa from Poland is an excellent example. Potato vodkas are a good choice for people who are allergic to grain. Vodka reached a high level of quality in eighteenth century Russia, according to Gordon Brown in Classic Spirits of the World , because it was controlled by the ruling class. The aristocrats could, in effect, create estate-grown vodka, which was carefully produced with virtually unlimited serf labor.