Törley is the leading sparkling wine producer in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

. It was founded by

József Törley József Törley (10 January 1858 – 28 July 1907) is credited as having established one of the most successful brands of sparkling wine outside of the Champagne region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the 19th century, production of ...

in 1882 in Budafok and over the course of the following years became one of the leading

sparkling wine Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne regi ...

producers in Europe.

History

had no children, so the factory was inherited by his brothers and their sons. Under the management of these heirs, the factory continued to flourish. By 1910, there was significant competition from other sparkling wine producers in Hungary. Budafok alone had 18 different producers operating, but the Törley plant still had the greatest market share in Hungary. The winery's output reached 2 million bottles and Törley had become one of the leading brands of sparkling wine in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

ended and the Trianon Peace Treaty was signed, the level of sparkling wine production by the Törley plant significantly decreased and touched bottom during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. In 1929-30, the annual production barely reached 200,000 bottles. In the 1930s, the demand for

increased again and during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

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. Likewise, the war made it difficult to estimate what demand would be in three years time – the gestation period of the Törley sparkling wine. 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.

Post World War II era

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

ended,

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

took control of

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 Likőrgyár (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. In the 21st century, Törley has developed a popular following in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

n countries. Törley currently produces

using both the méthode traditionelle of in-bottle fermentation and the

Charmat process Sparkling wine production is the method of winemaking used to produce sparkling wine. The oldest known production of sparkling wine took place in 1531 with the ''ancestral method''. Pressure and terminology In popular parlance and also in the ...

which uses large vats for the second fermentation. On October 29, 2004, ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

s wine critics rated Törley's Grand Cuvee the second best

in the world. The world’s first champagne order, the Chevaliers Torley, was established at the Törley factory in 1987. Members are accepted into the order after an initiation procedure known by its French name “ dégorgement.” Part of initiation requires members to remove sediment in the neck of a bottle according to a method devised by Törley himself. Hungarian State Wine-cellars appropriated the champagne factory in 1955, predecessor of today’s Hungária, which took over Törley champagne factory from Unicum. In 1987, Hungarovin became owner of Törley. Since 1992, Henkell & Söhnlein Hungaria Kft, a subsidiary of

Henkell & Söhnlein Sektkellerei AG Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei KG, today Henkell Freixenet, is a German producer of Sekt (German quality sparkling wine), wine and spirits based in Wiesbaden. From 1958 until October 2021, it belonged to Dr. August Oetker KG. Since November 2021, it h ...

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

has owned and produced the Törley brand.

External links

torley.hu Törley corporate website
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Filminhungary.com: Photos of the Törley factory

Dsy.hu: Photos of the Törley mansion
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torley Wineries of Hungary Sparkling wines Food product brands Food and drink companies established in 1882 1882 establishments in Hungary Purveyors to the Imperial and Royal Court Hungarian brands