Distillery helps fight in Ukraine with vodka

Feb. 21—SOUTH WINDSOR — The first bottle of bourbon the John Fitch Distilling Company ever made was stolen from its tasting room shortly before it opened in July, owner Shawn Jacobaccio said.

The bottle, missing about a sip worth of the locally made spirit, remains at the South Windsor Police Department as evidence.

Jacobaccio, who opened the distillery in the fall of 2020 at the height of the pandemic, has an empty case waiting for the distillery's first barrel-aged creation. He is patiently waiting for the bottle's return to showcase it in the distillery's tasting room, the Flying Canoe.

But that slight bump didn't stop Jacobaccio and his team from making a difference with their locally produced alcohol.

Despite being open for a short time, John Fitch Distillery has affected people across the globe — most recently in Ukraine.

"Doing good is in our company's DNA," said Jacobaccio, who sells a special brand of vodka with proceeds going to help the Ukrainian people.

As the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine nears, Jacobaccio says he can hardly believe the war has raged on this long. But when it began, he knew he had to use the distillery to help.

"It was just borne out me reading the news going, 'I have to do something'," he said. "It was just so brutal and unexpected."

In response to the tragedy, Jacobaccio decided to make and sell Molotava Freedom Vodka, raising funds for charities that help the war-torn nation.

They started selling the vodka in May 2022, but admittedly, did not see a lot of sales until December, Jacobaccio said.

The drink sits in a clear bottle with a label that is utilitarian and sends a message.

Every label is a painting by Banksy, a United Kingdom-based street artist, against a backdrop of the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag. The painting titled "Rage, the Flower Thrower" first appeared on a wall in Jerusalem, depicting a masked man throwing a bouquet of flowers, indicating peace.

Jacobaccio loves the message of Banksy's work and thought the flowers looked like a Molotov cocktail, a homemade incendiary weapon.

"We thought it would be a nice brand image for this vodka called Molatava to have a guy throwing not a Molotov cocktail, but these flowers," Jacobaccio said.

So far, John Fitch Distilling Co. has donated around $1,000 raised from selling the particular brand of vodka. The donations have gone to the International Red Cross.

"The push is to try and keep people in some form of comfortable environment where there's heat, at a minimum," he said.

The next donation batch will be sent to the World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit started by renowned chefs that provide emergency food relief to people living in tragic circumstances.

"We want a quick peaceful resolution," Jacobaccio said of the Ukrainian situation. "That's really what we're driving at with this."

Jacobaccio is proud of the work that the company is doing and hopes to raise as much money as possible to provide relief to the people living in Ukraine.

But more importantly, he said, "there's no way I ever thought I would still be making this product a year" later.

Using the distillery to help others is nothing new to Jacobaccio. The facility that broke ground in 2018 didn't even make alcoholic drinks as its first product.

During the spring of 2020, Andrew Paterna, South Windsor mayor at the time, told Jacobaccio that the town was having difficulty finding hand sanitizer as coronavirus pandemic raged across the globe.

At Paterna's request, Jacobaccio made hand sanitizer for the town's police officers, firefighters and staff.

"That's why it's in our DNA," Jacobaccio said. "The first thing we did was help someone."

By fall 2020, the distillery was making its first batches of whiskey. The company's tasting room, the Flying Canoe at 51 Glendale Road, opened in July 2022.

Besides whiskey, bourbon and the specialty vodka to help Ukraine, the distillery also makes and sells gin and flavored vodkas.

Jacobaccio gets the corn used to make his spirits from South Windsor farms such as Bordua and Burnham Farms.

They also don't follow traditional recipes, he said. Rather than using field corn, the distillery uses sweet "people corn" to cook their creations.

"We like to tell a very local story," he said.

It's a local story that's having a worldwide effect.

Collin covers South Windsor and East Hartford for the Journal Inquirer.