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Posts tagged Hungary
Törley – Some sparkling bubbles for New Year’s Eve
01 year ago
I’m a frequent reader of “The Good Life” blog The Hungarian Girl.
New Year’s Eve is just a few days away and as we all know it’s the night that sparkling wine takes center stage. Although, sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France are most renowned, great sparklers can also be found and enjoyed throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
I’m not the greatest fan of sparkling wine (as some already know). Törley is Hungary’s leading sparkling wine producer dating back to 1882, and it’s today one of the most successful brands of sparkling wine outside of the champagne region. Their original name was “József Törley and Co.”, after it’s founder. This sparkling wine (in Hungarian: Pezsgő) is delicate, well balanced, and refreshing.
History
Törley is located just outside of Budapest, in the Budafok area. This area alone once had 18 different producers of sparkling wines! In the 1910′s the winery’s output reached 2 million bottles. After World War I ended and the Trianon Peace Treaty was signed, the level of champagne production by the Törley plant significantly decreased and touched bottom during the Great Depression. In 1929-30, the annual production barely reached 200,000 bottles. In the 1930s, the demand for sparkling wine increased again and during the Second World War production again reached 1 million bottles annually. During the wartime boom, the demand became far greater than the quantity which could be produced by the existing technology. Despite the demand that the war had created, the hostilities quickly reversed the Törley plant’s fortune when a bomb destroyed the main building and the majority of the factory’s stocks in July 1944. After World War II ended, Communism took control of Hungary and the winery was subsequently nationalized in 1949. Under nationalization, the government merged the François brothers’ winery into Törley’s. The resulting Törley winery shrank to only four employees and the scope of the business was limited to selling what wine remained in stock. Production resumed in 1951 with Törley becoming the only champagne factory in Hungary and operating under the supervision of the Unicum Likõrgyár (the Unicum Liqueur Factory). The constantly increasing demand and the export possibilities encouraged the factory to develop an annual capacity of 30 million bottles by the end of the 1980s through continuous expansion and purchasing production lines of the latest technology. Today, the Törley factory produces some 12 to 14 million bottles each year and has close to a 50% domestic market share in Hungary.
By the beginning of the 20th century Törley sparkling wine was commonly known as “Hungarian sparkling wine” and vied in popularity with the Pest operetta. The name was identified with the heady drink served in hotels, cafés, restaurants, dance halls and bars everywhere. In 1907 the winery celebrated its 25th anniversary. By then Törley sparkling wines were known from America to Australia. The firm had warehouses in Hamburg, Berlin and Copenhagen. But the greatest recognition of all was that by then Törley had become a popular drink in Paris as well. On October 29, 2004, The Wall Street Journal’s wine critics rated Törley’s Grand Cuvee the second best sparkling wine in the world.
Sadly Törley, as so many other things, is not in Hungarian hands. Since 1992, Henkell & Söhnlein Hungaria Kft, a subsidiary of Henkell & Söhnlein Sektkellerei AG of Wiesbaden, Germany has owned and produced the Törley brand.
Visiting
Törley is open to the public through it’s museum, and you can walk through some of the cellars (where more than one million bottles are treated) and of course taste the sparkling wine in the Zsolnay Hall. In the cellars you will be introduced to the origin of sparkling wine, the secrets and methods of sparkling wine production.
The tours are offered in both Hungarian and foreign languages, and last about 70-90 minutes. Visitors are asked to register at least one week in advance. You can register over phone (+ 36 1 362-1634), fax (+ 36 1 362-1635) and e-mail (gyorgyvilla@palacecatering.hu). The visiting address is 1221 Budapest, Anna utca 5-7.
I hope to be visiting Törley next spring, so look out for a future blog post.
Why is this not mentioned with a single word in Norway?
0[googlemap lat="47.040182144806664" lng="19.16015625" width="450px" height="150px" zoom="4" type="G_NORMAL_MAP"]Budapest[/googlemap]I have often wondered why this is so little about things happening in Eastern Europe in the Norwegian media.
This weekend the Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany announced that he will step down, as his government’s popularity plummets amid the global financial crisis. Hungary is badly hit by the global credit crisis, and is perhaps far worse off then Iceland. But there I must admit that I don’t really know. I often hear that if a country can go bankrupt, Hungary has already done so … In Mindszent the village that I usually visit, the official unemployment rate is about 40 %. And the Hungarian currency, Forint (HUF), recently hit it’s all time low: 1 NOK was close to 35 HUF and 1 € is 300 HUF.
Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said that he was leaving office in the following way:
“I hear that I am the obstacle to the co-operation required for changes, for a stable governing majority and the responsible behaviour of the opposition,” he was quoted as saying on Saturday by Reuters news agency.
“I hope it is this way, that it is only me that is the obstacle, because if so, then I am eliminating this obstacle now.
“I propose that we form a new government under a new prime minister.”
Mr Gyurcsany did not name any possible successor. And for a good reason, there are not many capable of leading Hungary out of their current situation. From Fidesz I have not heard any thing else then tax reduction, but then again, I live in Norway and not Hungary. One thing is sure, Hungary is up for a turbulent period with quite a few possible outcomes.
Well, there has been nothing about this news in Norway so far, but perhaps when the official announcement comes today from the Parliament, then also Norwegian media wake up?
2000 people evaquated a long the river Tisza
03 years ago
The weekend got came to an fast end as the water level in Tisza started increasing fast in North-East Hungary. 2000-2200 tourist that was living at vásárosnaményi-gergelyiugornyai camping. The area is inside the dikes, but 650 cm high water surrounding it. The top is to be reached tomorrow, 740 cm.
I wonder how high the water level get on the beach in Mindszent some time next week, and was closed for swimming today. Perhaps cause the higher stream in the river.
Hungary preparing for floods (3 roads closed)
13 years ago
When my parents are enjoying a beautiful summer at home in Oslo, with temperatures close to 30′ C, I have had a week of rain down in the south of Hungary and more is to come. A quite different holiday then what I had last year, with heat record and temperatures above 40 degrees. As I am the admin of the Global Environmental Change and Human Security (Gechs) site, I thought about writing a few lines about what I have seen on TV and read in newspapers.
After the flood Hernád river (in Slovakia – Hornád) had in 2004, Hungary has collected hydrological data performed by twelve District Environmental Protection and Water Authorities (DEPWA) functioning under the supervision of the National Environmental Protection and Water Authority. So when I now write that disaster management staff the last couple of days have been reinforcing dams along northern Hungary’s flooding Hernad river, it’s because the government early could state a third-degree flood alert. The area in danger is a 71 km part of the river Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county that still doesn’t have dikes, and the top of the flood is expected tomorrow (740 cm). The top in 2006 was 943 cm! At the Hungarian-Slovakian border the top of the flood was 415 cm, and the last hour the water level dropped with 6 cm.
Spokesman Csaba Csont told the press that the level of the water had risen from the first degree alert to the third degree in the course of ten hours, due to the exceptionally wet weather of the past few days. At noon on Friday the river flooded the road between Novajidrany and Vizsoly and it was closed for traffic. Though no villages have been cut off as yet, it is expected that further roads will be rendered unsurpassable in the coming days. Csont said that 100,000 sand bags and 5,000 cubic metres of sand were being amassed along the river for flood defence operations. Hernad’s dams are being reinforced and raised at Mera, Ocsalanos and Gesztely villages, while the municipalities of affected settlements are checking the flood protection dams around residential areas.
Floods are also reported in Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania. Sadly two people are reported dead cause of the flood so far in Romania, 2 in Slovakia and 4 in Ukraine. About 70 villages are striked by flood and some of them isolated and only accessible by helicopter in Romania and 120 villages in Slovakia got evacuated.
The pictures are taken from Duna TV.
What Happened To The Green Revolution?
13 years ago
by frankps
in Climate Change
Last year was all about bio fuel, and that that environment friendly alternative was to save the world. It was all about it being a promising source of environmentally friendly energy that would also be a boon to the world’s farmers. What happened? The bio fuel alternative hit massive criticsm, and goverments accross the world were forced to stop and start thinking. Skeptics argue that biofuel production will threaten food supplies for the poor while failing to achieve many of its alleged environmental benefits.
The numbers have started coming on the table, and they show that the transition to bio fuel is one of many reasons for the international foodprice crises. According to International Food Policy Research the increased biofuel demand during the period 2000 – 2007 has estimated to have accounted for 30 percent of the increase in weighted average grain prices. Unsurprisingly, the biggest impact was on maize prices, for which increased biofuel demand is estimated to account for 39 percent of the increase in real prices. Increased biofuel demand is estimated to account for 21 percent of the increase in rice prices.
I find it sad to see that the critics come so late. It comes after several factories have been built or are in the process of being built, and more and more fuel stations have started selling this “green” alternative. For instance the Australian company Agri Energy Limited is planning to build a cogeneration power plant in Hódmezővásárhely, Hungary, one of the best food chambers in Eastern Europe, a 500,000 tonne per year oil seed (sunflower) crushing facility and a cogeneration 55 MW input capacity biomass power plant. The project targets to take advantage of low cost agricultural feedstock from Hungary, Romania and Serbia to provide crude and degummed/refined vegetable oil into the rapidly expanding Western European biodiesel market. I have just one word for he project: Disgusting.
In Norway the market is luckily collapsing. Norway’s biggest biofuel company, BV Energi, recently went bankrupt. It’s remainings sadly got bought up by Statoil.
EU recently announced that they were sticking to a previously agreed goal that biofuels should provide 10 percent of the energy needed to power cars and other modes of transport by 2020, even when the European commissioner for development aid has stated that there is a genuine risk that traditional agriculture in poor countries will be damaged if arable land is used for growing crops destined to meet energy needs in wealthier parts of the world. And a recent study by scientists working for the Commission concluded that “the uncertainty is too great to say whether the EU 10 percent biofuel target will save greenhouse gases or not.”
Why do we do this then? No greenhouse gases saved and less food produced. Where is the logic? And why don’t we focus more on producing bio energy from waste? Waste-to-energy facilities as a fuel with minimal processing, can undergo moderate to extensive processing before being directly combusted as refuse-derived fuel; or it can be gasified using pyrolysis or thermal gasification techniques. Each of these technologies presents the opportunity for both electricity production as well as an alternative to landfilling or composting. In contrast with many other energy technologies that require fuel to be purchased, people/companies pay to get rid of their waste.