Pálinka
Pálinka is the Hungarian name for fruit brandy .
history
Archaeological finds from the area around Buda show that spirits were already known in the Kingdom of Hungary in the 13th century. The first written record dates from 1656: In his Opera Medica writes John Praevotius (1585-1631) from the vitae reginae Hungariae Acqua , the "water of life of the Hungarian Queen". Presumably it was brandy that Queen Elisabeth's personal physicians imported from Italy as a medicine. The word pálinka , formed from the Slovak verb páliť , “to cook” , “to boil” appears for the first time in the 16th century. From around this time on, spirits were consumed as a drink, and fruit and grain brandies continued to spread. In 1836 a spirits tax was introduced for the first time in the Kingdom of Hungary, and in 1850 production was placed under the control of a state monopoly . In 1851 there were 105 129 distilleries in the Kingdom of Hungary. After the alcohol ban during the Hungarian Soviet Republic, there were only 260 distilleries in 1920, exactly 1071 in 1970 and 815 distilleries in 1982 (on a significantly reduced Hungarian territory ). Since 2002 the pálinka has experienced a renaissance in Hungary as a high-quality, trendy drink as a result of the pálinka law. In 2010, a large amount of fruit brandy was produced in Hungary's commercial distilleries, equivalent to 1.08 million liters of pálinka with 50 percent alcohol by volume .
Manufacturing
Pálinka is made from fruits that contain enough sugar to produce enough alcohol for distillation during the fermentation process . For fermentation, the fruit is placed in airtight vessels, where alcohol is formed from the sugar under the action of yeast in a few weeks . The alcohol is then gently distilled in several steps so that the valuable aromas and essential oils of the fruit are retained, which gives the fruit brandy its fruity taste. Hungarian pálinkas usually have an alcohol content of 40 to 55 percent by volume .
sorts
Classic pálinka varieties are apricot , plum and cherry . Pálinka made from apples or quinces is also popular . Since 2002, more and more distilleries have been experimenting with rarer, sometimes wildly growing types of fruit such as sloes , rowanberries , blueberries , currants or mulberries . The term törkölypálinka describes a pomace brandy .
Legal basis
With the Pálinka Ordinance of 2002 and, even further, with the Pálinka Act 2008, the Hungarian legislature has outlined exactly what can be sold under the name pálinka . Accordingly, a pálinka made from fruits produced in Hungary (with Törkölypálinka pomace) must be distilled and bottled in Hungary . This practically corresponds to a controlled designation of origin. Furthermore, neither the mash nor the finished fruit brandy may be added to any additives such as sugar, flavorings, colorings or the like. A pálinka must contain at least 37.5 percent alcohol by volume.
At EU level, only Hungary and the four Austrian federal states of Lower Austria , Burgenland , Styria and Vienna have had the right to designate their respective products as pálinka since 2004 . In contrast to Hungary, in Austria only the term barackpálinka may be used for apricot brandy .
On September 27, 2010, a change in the law came into force in Hungary, according to which the production of up to 86 liters of pálinka per year with 50 percent volume is not subject to approval and is exempt from the spirits tax. The new regulation was strongly criticized by the interest groups of commercial quality distilleries.
literature
- Szabolcs Marton: Az italok és az italozás története . Szeged 2004 (Hungarian).
- Géza Balázs: Pálinka, a hungarikum . Budapest 2004 (Hungarian).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Regulation (EC) No. 110/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council , accessed on October 4, 2010
- ↑ Hungary: Victor Orbán's “Schnaps Idea” . In: Die Presse , June 29, 2010 (accessed October 4, 2010)