Khortytsa

Entrepreneur Yevhen Chernyak founded a distribution company in 1998 and began building a new high-tech distillery in 2002; the first Khortytsia bottles rolled off the line in December 2003, exactly one year after construction began. Large-scale exports started in 2006, and by 2011 the brand had entered the United States, where it is sold as Khor. By 2013 Khortytsia products were available in more than eighty countries.

Production and technology

The distillery, one of the ten largest vodka plants in the world, combines continuous column distillation of 100 % grain neutral spirit with artesian spring water sourced on-site. Vodka leaves the plant after a seven-stage filtration sequence that includes quartz sand, birch-and-alder charcoal and schungite mineral filters.

Product portfolio

Khortytsia’s core line is headed by Platinum, followed by premium extensions such as De Luxe and Ice, the latter sold in a temperature-sensitive bottle that turns blue below 5 °C. Flavoured variants—including honey-pepper and birch bud infusions—are released periodically for CIS and export markets.

Market performance

Drinks International tracked a rivalry for third place in global vodka sales between Khortytsia and fellow Ukrainian brand Khlibnyi Dar; in 2015 Khortytsia pulled ahead after posting 3 % volume growth to 7.5 million nine-litre cases. The Spirits Business reported that the label ranked among the world’s top three best-selling vodkas in the 2017 edition of its “Millionaires’ Club” survey. Recent data show Khortytsia shipping 9.3 million cases in 2023, edging closer to Pernod Ricard’s Absolut.