Márton Pálinka Distillery and the Hungarian Apricot Pálinka
János Márton founded his Pálinka distilling enterprise in 1991, preparing for his retirement time. He purchased the Községi Distillery in Györköny, where he started to devote time to his hobby with a 100-year old ‘kisüsti’ – pot still – , traditional distilling system. At the beginning only during the weekends with his wife, Marietta and his daughters.
Based on his previous business experience he had a very serious technology, finance and marketing concept. Th is includes the sourcing of the raw materials’ origin – partnering with growers – and the high-quality Pálinka produced out of it – with right technology and knowledgeable colleagues – and the developing of a unique brand as well. These were the foundation of the business.
When the business started, there was only very little professional literature available, no wonder that he mastered the way to produce good pálinka by himself. As a result of more than 8 years of professional work, today the owner can rightfully say that his colleagues have high professional qualifi cation and up-todate continuously trained sensory abilities, which according to his beliefs are essential parts for the creation of quality Pálinka.
It is true to all of the pálinkas in the Márton és Lányai (Márton and Daughters) brand line-up that they deliver the main objective during the production by transforming the raw material of the fruit into extraordinary, aromatic, seductive nose and having the flavour with the scent in complete harmony. The high quality of their products is confirmed by the number of high ranking local and international awards. The pálinka trade and the consumers can be very grateful as well for a number of innovations. It was the Márton Distillery, that first chose raspberry as raw material, provoking the astonishment of the trade and the great interest of the consumers. The so called „Gurulós” raspberry pálinka was a huge professional challenge, yet it’s worth the invested energy, since it started a trend in the history of making premium quality Pálinka.
He tasted a wonderful wine, made from the Irsai Olivér grape, on his daughter´s wedding, which immediately sparked his creative fantasy, as a result of this in 2006 the country´s first Irsai Olivér grape Pálinka made its way onto the market, which started another trend and began the well-known practice of today, the production of Grape Pálinka. Today Márton Distillery is a benchmark in terms of Pálinka business, and the Márton and Daughters rand is considered premium in terms of Pálinka.
About the Hungarian Apricot Pálinka, which awarded for the Pálinka of the Ministry of Agriculture, the owner spoke in more detail during the press release. The apricot was part of their product line-up right from the beginning, as according to their philosophy it is an important fruit, well-known internationally, and the Pálinkas, produced out of it, were always successful products, received high acclaims, and the consumers liked them as well. This Apricot Pálinka was made in the year of 2018, a year when frost damage was big, especially in the apricot orchards. In many places the frost damage was a total disaster, at the luckier locations frost only damaged part of the fruit. It was no wonder, that the cost of the raw material was increased by one and a half times compared to the previous years. According to János Márton, this way the tree could pay more attention to the smaller crop, it received more nutrients, hence more aromas developed in the fruit. This is perhaps why the judges found this Pálinka extraordinary, as it is made out of a very special fruit, the typical apricot tones are just more intense, hence it has very fragrant, colorful flavour world and a perfect harmony, which together create an overall very enjoyable Pálinka.