Russia and Poland have spent years arguing over who actually invented vodka, a fight serious enough that it has spilled into the European Union's regulatory rooms as the two countries lobbied over what can legally be labeled "vodka." VICE travels to the source of that argument, tracing how a drink now standardized at 40% alcohol by volume, with the EU setting a 37.5% floor for the name to apply, became tangled up in national pride and centuries of Russian-Polish tension. The film treats the dispute as a proxy for a longer history between the two countries, using distillers, historians, and industry figures to sort claim from counterclaim. It also notes how recent vodka's American fame actually is, pointing out the spirit was barely known in the United States before the 1940s. The result is less a drinking guide than a look at how a bottle on a shelf can carry an old grudge.