History
“My diligence and persistency allowed me to succeed in creating a much better sparkling wine than the currently known products of Champagne.”
– József TÖRLEY wrote in 1882, when he decided to get in business in Hungary utilizing his skills learned in Reims, France.
Near Etyek, he found suitable vineyards, which had similar soil and climatic features to those of Champagne in France, so the wines made here were also suitable to make sparkling wines. He found the right spot for a processing plant in Budafok, which belonged to Promontor at the time, because it also had ideal limestone cellars with constant temperatures, the same as in Champagne, from where sparkling wine originates. The experts who equipped the plant were French, just like the plant’s manager, Louis François, who later started his own business.
József TÖRLEY was both a great businessman and a skilled professional. His plant and his sparkling wine making technology were under constant development. One of his most important innovations: In Hungary, he was the first to introduce degorging by freezing the sediment. By the turn of the century, his plant has become the most modern sparkling wine factory in the country.
At the Millennium Exhibition, TÖRLEY already appeared under the title of “official suppliers of the emperor and king”, and their sparkling wine was one of the flagship products of the Hungarian industry. By the beginning of the century, TÖRLEY has become “the Hungarian sparkling wine”, and was just as popular as the Budapest operetta. The brand name was synonymous with the invigorating drink that was on the wine list of every hotel, café, restaurant, orpheum and bar.
The factory celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1907. At the time, TÖRLEY sparkling wines were well-known from America to Australia. The plant had storehouses in Hamburg, Berlin and Copenhagen. But the biggest honour of all: they drank Törley in Paris too.
The plant’s output reached 2 million bottles by the 1910’s. An era in the plant’s history has ended in 1944, when the plant was hit in the bombings. After the war, and before it was disappropriated by the state in 1950, the plant was inactive and in a vegetative state, employing only 4 people.
Törley Sparkling Wine Cellar’s output peaked during the 1980’s, when the Hungarian sparkling wine acropolis produced about 30 million bottles a year. Besides the Soviet and East German markets, Törley exported its products to West Germany, Austria and other Western countries as well.
Today, Törley produces 10-12 million bottles per year, and remains the domestic market leader with its 35% market share. Our sparkling wine, have been made according to the same principles of tradition and quality for over 125 years, is ever so popular in Hungary and all over the world.
