An award ceremony was held on Friday at the Ákovita International Distillery and Pálinka Competition held in Csíksereda. At the event organized at the Hunguest Hotel Fenyö in Csikszereda, local and Hungarian politicians and professionals praised the high number of entries, which they said resulted in close competition.
The event, held for the first time, began with the singing of the Hungarian and Székely national anthems with the participation of the Codex Régizene Együttes and folk singer Levente Vaszi. In addition to the local political leaders, the event was attended by István Nagy, Minister of Agriculture of Hungary and also the main patron of the competition, as well as László Tóth, head of the Hungarian Consulate General in Csíkszereda, László Mihály, president of the Hungarian Pálinka National Council and Géza Béli, co-founder of the professional workshop of the Hungarian Pálinka College. István Becze, the president of the Association of Székely Host Organizations and the main organizer of the event, was the first speaker to thank all contributors for their work and the courage of the entrants for the pálinka competition
During the celebratory speeches, Mayor Attila Korodi, Sándor Tamás, Ferenc Péter, and Székelyföld County Council Presidents Csaba Borboly emphasized the creation of values and traditions in connection with the competition, which results in the strengthening of Hungarian relations. Géza Béli, as the professional chairman of the competition, spoke about the 1,082 submitted samples, which, as he said, is double the popularity expected in advance. Such a high number is not common in competitions with decades of tradition, he said. He informed that among the samples received from Transylvania, Partium, Vojvodina, Felvidék, Hungary and Israel, there were 164 that did not meet the standards of the competition, but the professional jury gave personal advice to improve the quality of the distillates.
Minister István Nagy at the award ceremony/Photo: szekelyhon.ro
István Nagy, Hungary's Minister of Agriculture, underlined that pálinka gives identity to the Hungarian nation and has the power to create culture. Our goal is to bring quality drinks to the market. As Hungarians, we offer pálinka to the people dear to us, because we want to show what we are capable of - emphasized the minister, calling the number of samples over a thousand submitted incredible. Among the submitted samples, 315 earned bronze, 394 silver, and 209 gold ratings. The contestants were called one by one, who received a commemorative card, a medal and a personalized professional evaluation regarding the submitted sample. The second half of the long handover became exciting, where it was not unique that a competitor submitted so many different samples that he achieved 40-50 ratings. János András Előd and Vass Csongor from Csíkdelne collected eight bronze, 30 silver and 24 gold qualifications. Among the special awards, they also won the Special Award of the City of Csíkszereda, as well as the individual award for the most successful Transylvanian private brewers and the best Transylvanian plum distillate. Nándor Portik won the award for the best pálinka chosen by the press.
Distillates that won the various categories were awarded with the Champion rating.
Source and featured photo: szekelyhon.ro
