“Monopolowa” means “monopoly”, in this case referring to a privilege given to the Polish nobility class of the szlachta, giving them exclusive rights to produce and sell vodka in their territories.

Monopolowa was produced by J. A. Baczewski until World War II. After the war, Gessler, an Austrian company, bought the licence and the rights to production. In 1990, the Starogard Gdanski based branch of Polmos, a privatized offshoot of the former state-owned monopoly, started to produce several of J.A. Baczewski’s products under license from Altvater Gessler – J.A. Baczewski International (USA) Inc. However, in the late 1990s, the license was terminated and production in Poland was halted.