New Here- Looking for Large Distillers for Vodka

[Bean]

Good morning all.

It's nice to have finally found these forums.I think you guys are going to be a great resource.

My partner and I have recently secured funding and started a business and we would like to have our own brand of Vodka. In time we would like to distill ourselves, but to get the ball rolling our plan is to work with a Distiller here in the US.

We know of only a handful of large distilleries.Can any of you make any suggestions who else we might want to research?

Bottle design and production - Do you know of anyone that you would reccomend? The design is not going to be simple and standard.

One last thing, thats always bugged me...

If there are so many distillers here in the US and Vodka is one of the less complicated spirits to produce, then why do so many companies go to eastern Europe?

Is it because they have so much more experience making Vodka?

Is it the cost?

Is it the the availability of resources?

Thanks for the help, look forward to hearing from you.