Hungary’s Törley winery plans to use half of its energy from renewable sources, halve its CO2 emissions by 2030 and reduce them to zero by 2040. Innovative developments in growing and production will also promote efficiency and sustainability, as well as mutually beneficial cooperation with nature, the company’s Managing Director Kornél Müller said in a podcast.
In the Voices of Industry podcast, he elaborated about product developments to appeal to younger consumers and why their mission is to create premium quality non-alcoholic alternatives.
The domestic market for champagne consumption is still slow, with sales down 10% last year, suggesting that there are fewer occasions when Hungarians have had happy moments that they are happy to crown with a bottle of champagne. Törley is also seeing a polarization in the declining market, with sales of higher-priced sparkling wines (HUF 6-8,000) and lower-priced sparkling wines increasing, but the mid-range shrinking. It is interesting to note that the recently debuted HUF 1 million bottles have enjoyed unexpected popularity over the summer, while the majority of people have opted for a cheaper product than usual. However, the managing director was of the view that these are short-term market shifts that will soon change as real wages rise.
Although almost half of all bottles are still being put in baskets in the last third of the year, market trends and consumption patterns are creating new challenges for the sparkling wine industry. The emergence of sparkling wine cocktails and sparkling wine on ice is something that would have been unthinkable even 15 years ago. At the same time, the number of people who do not or very rarely drink alcohol is growing.
Kornél Müller said that in response to these challenges, Törley is constantly expanding its product portfolio, which may require completely new technologies and solutions. For example, to make Ice sparkling wine, a more carbonated, fruitier product with a slightly higher sugar content had to be produced, which, when ice melts into it, delivers the dry taste experience you expect from a better sparkling wine.
Törley Winery is also at the forefront of technological innovation in agriculture. The shortage of manpower, such as tractor drivers, is partly remedied by autonomous tractors or robots that can even steer the old MTZ tractors around the vineyard. Vineyard workers are assisted by weather stations in the field, but there have also been experiments with drone crop protection, which has proved useful in cases where it was not possible to get on to the heavily waterlogged soil, but other applications, such as in times of infestation, seem premature.
In addition to technological improvements, the company is also increasingly focusing on restoring biodiversity in vineyards, with the installation of bird boxes and, in the near future, tree lines and even woodland to help vines grow in harmony with nature.
In the latest episode of the Voices of Industry podcast, it was also mentioned that sparkling wine production is an energy-hungry sector – Törley Winery bottles 19 million bottles of champagne a year – and the winery will meet half of its on-site energy needs by installing 500 megawatts of solar panels from next year. In addition to traditional methods, where the bottles are now turned by robots, champagne is also produced in large tanks, where reliable cooling and heating is of paramount importance. The sparkling wine production process is supported by Siemens solutions.
Törley is also striving for sustainability in other areas: no animal ingredients are used throughout the company, which is not common in the wine and champagne industry, and very strict plans have been made for carbon emissions: the company aims to halve its carbon footprint by 2030 and become completely carbon neutral by 2040.
Törley also wants to be a pioneer in environmentally friendly packaging. Today, there are still strict EU rules on the bottles in which champagne can be poured, but plastic bottles are already being experimented with abroad. Reducing the weight of champagne bottles is a technological challenge, as the bottles have to withstand twice the pressure of vehicle tires. At the same time, the development of lightweight bottles could help to reduce the environmental impact of the manufacturing process.
The growth in demand for non-alcoholic products is particularly noticeable in Western Europe, but in Hungary. Törley has been successful with these innovative products for several years. The company's mission is to develop quality non-alcoholic sparkling beverages so that those who do not wish to consume alcohol can enjoy the experience of drinking champagne and share the festive moments equally.


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