It’s vodka with a Greek-Western Australian flavour

While vodka may not be a traditionally Greek spirit, the distillation process for raki, tsipouro and ouzo certainly is a tradition that many Greeks brought with them to Australia, and Mitchell Smilovitis has drawn on that tradition to commercially produce from scratch a vodka – Smilov Vodka to you and me.

“Out of the many spirits out there, vodka is the most popular and was the easiest to get into,” Mr Smilovitis told Neos Kosmos.

“I will be making grappa and ouzo, but I am working on getting it right with the ingredients to have something ready early next year.”

And the ingredients for the vodka are all Australian and most of them are sourced in the Margaret River area south of Perth where he lives with wife, Mary, and their three young boys.

Mary Smilovitis, of Indian descent, is the driver behind the successful month-long marketing campaign that brought Smilov Spirits and its inaugural vodka offering to the world .

“Half the business is online and the rest of the vodka is intended to go to restaurants, bars and pubs that are aligned with our branding. Our first batch was sold online across Australia. The second release is out next week and we have already sold half of it,” said Mr Smilovitis.

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The Smilovitis family probably have COVID-19 to thank for their venture into the spirits business. Mr Smilovitis, who has a background in the hospitality industry, suggested buying a bar as business venture in the midst of the first lockdown last year. It was an idea that Mrs Smilovitis turned down as too demanding on the young family.

When over a softening-up dinner, he suggested they start a Vodka brand of their own, Mrs Smilovitis was all for it.

Both have been business minded from an early age. Mr Smilovitis launched his first business a property management company when he was 19. Ms Smilovitis runs a digital media company in Melbourne.

In 2017, the couple moved with their children to Chennai, India to explore the opportunities there.

“My 20s were the blink of an eye. I loved India, I saw opportunities and started businesses there,” Mr Smilovitis said.

The family returned to Western Australia in January, 2020 to sort a number of issues when COVID hit and forced a re-assessment that led them to moving to Margaret River.

“The years 2017 to 2020 were a roller-coaster life in India that took up a lot of energy. We decided this was a good time to settle down. The children (three boys aged 11,10 and seven) learned a lot from travelling but now it is time to grow roots,” he said.

Although he grew up in Perth, he had family in Margaret River. His father’s stepbrother, Steve, was one inspiration for the vodka production as Mr Smilovitis recalled he made his own wine, ouzo and raki.

But he credits his late grandmother, Sophia, for instilling in him an understanding of business and being patient with time and money.

“She was very good with looking after the family money. Although she could not speak English, she always knew what state I was in. She would say ‘slowly, slowly, Mitchell,’ to take the time to look at all aspects (of a business idea before committing to it).”

“She gardened into her 80s and refused to go into an old age home. ‘I will die in this house,” and she did at age 94,” said Mr Smilovitis.

His grandfather, Dimitri, was fearless and would try anything – a trait that his grandson has carried with him.

“Pappou was always hands on and always doing things. He ran a bakery from his house. My father, Tom, still gets sick when he is offered baklava because his father made so much of it at home. ”

His grandfather was 13 when the Germans caught him ferrying arms for the partisans. He was sent to Dachau concentration camp in Germany. During the Greek civil war met Sophia in East Germany and his father Tom was born in East Germany. Pappou returned to join the Greek army and fought in the civil war and in the Korean War.

His grandparents came to Fremantle, in Western Australia in 1955, when his father was seven years old.

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“I am here because of that Greek heritage – the work ethic, the stubbornness to push on with an idea and pursue what you believe in.

“My name is on the bottle (of vodka) and it is very important to have the authenticity right. We control and manage the entire process and the business is 100 percent in our control.

“I have started young and I hope that by the time I am 40, the boys will be interested in being part of this family business,” Mr Smilovitis said.