The François Story
Louis François sparkling wine master arrived to Hungary from Reims, France, when József Törley sparkling wine manufacturer persuaded him to join his enterprise. In 1886, after four years of fruitful co-operation, François established his own sparkling wine producing business, Louis François et Co. together with his brother César, who recently moved to Budafok. They were already able to fill 7243 bottles of sparkling wine in the same year. This is how the spectacular development of this factory started, which was established by the sons of Philipe François, sparkling wine master at Montigny sparkling wine factory in Champagne. Their work made a valuable contribution to the development and recognition of sparkling wine making in Budafok.
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Louis François had ample knowledge of the analytical sparkling wine making method of Champagne, and brought with himself his family’s traditional experience and knowledge, which he shared exclusively with his brother César, and the two worked in full agreement, complementing one another. The annual sales of the company in 1914 reached 800,000 bottles. When WWI broke out the company had a huge stock, but the sales dropped significantly. There was no export, domestic sales dropped, the stock was growing, but the quality of the 4-5-year-old sparkling wines were excellent. The Great Depression put further strain to the plant, so until 1928 they were only filling 30-40 thousand bottles a year. Louis died in 1921, and César took over the company management. Starting in 1928, a new upswing arrived, and the annual sales in the early 1940’s reached 200,000 bottles. In August 1944, six bombs hit the plant, completely destroying it and the whole stock. The family was not able to recover their business. Eventually, in 1949, the Central Corporation of Banking Companies liquidated it, and the real estate properties were disappropriated by the state.
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The joint history of François and Törley resumed in 1982, when Törley Sparkling Wine Cellar bought the business rights of the François family name and reconstructed the original cellars. The meticulously quality-oriented François sparkling wine factory still uses Chardonnay and Pinot Noire variety grapes grown exclusively in our own vineyard in the Etyek-Buda wine region to this day, so that you could enjoy the best of the best sparkling wines. Brand development and manufacturing always keep in sight the goal of offering such sparkling wines that fit the domestic taste perfectly.
