Zwack Unicum

Product of: Hungary

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This brandy based, bitter herbal liqueur was created in 1790 by József Zwack, court physician to the Habsburg emperor. On tasting the digestive, His Majesty Joseph II commented: "Das ist ein Unikum!", which translates as a 'unique thing', so giving the drink its name.

A descendant, also named József Zwack, started commercial production in 1840 and the liqueur's popularity quickly grew across the Austro-Hungarian Empire. By the turn of the century it had become the national drink of Hungary.

The Zwak family rebuilt its distillery after devastating WWII damage only to have their assets and distillery confiscated with the Communist takeover in 1948. The exiled family moved production to Italy and instigated a lawsuit in the United States against the Hungarian government, through their importers, for having illegally retained the Zwack trademarks. This precedent-setting case ended in victory for the Zwacks and it was ruled that the Communist controlled factory in Budapest could no longer export its version of Unicum to the West.

Perestroika in the Eastern Bloc led to Peter Zwack, the fourth generation heir, being invited back to Hungary to take over the running of his old family factory and in July 1989 he signed a joint venture with the Hungarian State Monopoly. In 1991 privatization led to Peter Zwack and his partners taking control of the entire Budapest liquor monopoly. The company (Zwack Unicum Nyrt) went public in 1993 leaving Peter Zwack and Emil Underberg jointly retaining over 50 per cent of the company shares, while Diageo holds 26 per cent.

Unicum is macerated and distilled from over forty different herbs and roots and undergoes six months' oak ageing.

Review and Tasting

Sampled on 15/08/2011

Appearance:

Clear, dark chestnut brown with burnished copper highlights.

Aroma:

Smoky, herbal/vegetal nose with fennel, jasmine, orris, anise, sarsparilla and tobacco aromas.

Taste:

Bold, bitter-sweet somewhat medicinal herbal palate is incredibly complex with flavours of sarsparilla, espresso coffee, bitter cacao, sweet liquorice, anise, citrus and chilli-heat spice. Hardened palates will admire the challenging herbal complexity but more youthful, tender palates may find it too bitter and medicinal.

Aftertaste:

Bitter, hot spicy (black pepper and chilli heat) finish.