Notably Absent in Competition in 2012
We still wait for 2012 promise bottle
We've only had one bottle of this, back in 2004, and it went quick. Traditional styling and a great nose made this an instant favorite among the judges, and my father - who confiscated the bottle almost immediately to offer to only his favorite neices and nephews. Perfectly clear, with a traditional style bite and finish, it reminded my dad of his dad.
That's sort of the reason we drink slivovitz in the first place.
I buy a lot of Slivovitz. Maintaining the library means buying a bottle or two of everything I run across. I've got some favorites, some for a great body, some for perfect balance between pit bite and skin notes, some with astounding aroma. Zusy holds a special place in my heart simply because it reminds me of my father, who died in February, 2007. Sure, it's a very good plum brandy, and the distiller should be proud, but it's the one brand that I have to recuse myself from testing. I recognize it instantly, and probably always will, and every time I taste it, it brings a tear to my eye.
Of course, as Dad would have said, "Backyard slivo is supposed to bring a tear to your eye." I don't think that's quite what he meant. I just ordered a bottle off their website, to share with my siblings at Christmas. Shipping, customs, and import fees make it an expensive toast, but Dad always did like the expensive stuff when one of his kids was paying for it. After all, this is the man who handed me an invoice for $86,000 on my 18th birthday. (A kind man, he didn't charge a penny of interest on his estimate of what it cost to raise me.)
We haven't offered this to many Festival guests, simply because it's not available in the US yet.
Copied from the distiller's website www.zufanek.cz:
Zufanek Slivovitz is a refined, high quality fruit spirit with a characteristic aroma and taste, with a volume of 50% alcohol. It is produced in a limited quantity from ripe fruit, with fixed ratios of individual varieties, which ensures the originality of genuinely fine Moravian Slovak Slivovitz.
The production of Slivovitz is a long and complex process, beginning with the harvesting and sorting of plums. Only ripe and pure fruit can be used as a basis for Zufanek Slivovitz. A pulp is prepared from the fruit, which is placed in closed stainless steel tanks with a volume of 160 hl. This stage of the production is called fermentation and is the most important element in the production process. The pulp ferments for a minimum of 100 days in airtight conditions, in which we can regulate this period or the intensity of fermentation using a duplicator, with which all our fermentation tanks are equipped.
The Slivovitz production itself is known as distillation. We perform this on thoroughly modern equipment using unique column technology, in which 3x distilled Slivovitz with a typical aroma of plums and delicate taste is obtained from the fermented pulp in a single process. Freshly distilled Slivovitz has a relatively high alcohol content (approximately 56%), and must therefore be diluted with spring water to the final 50%. The Slivovitz then matures in a cellar in stainless steel tanks at a temperature of approximately 12°C. It lies here undisturbed for a period of 8-12 months in order to attain the harmony in aroma and taste which is so typical of Zufanek Slivovitz.
2012 Notes: Promised, not delivered. Sad.
2004 Notes: When one of the bottles Martin Zufanek sent us shattered in the mail, we had to explain to the postmaster exactly what slivovitz was, and why it removed the ink from the other mail in the bag. The remaining bottle was closely guarded, until my father tasted it and began handing out shots to the cousins. Exactly 6 Festival guests got to try it, and every one of them wanted more. Clear, aged in stainless steel, with generous plum nose and just the right amount of skin and pit bite. It’s not available in the US, but worth smuggling one of the 30,000 liters they make each year.
687 63 Borsice u Blatnice 57
Phone: +420 723 640 999
US Distributor Information
No US Distributor