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Visit to a collective Horinca Distillery in Hoteni, Romania
November 3, 2004

(the article & pictures can be viewed altogether at 
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/pcwiki/index.php/PlumAlcoholInMaremures)

We spent a couple days at the home of Ioan & Anutza Pop in the Maremures (ma' 
ra mu resh)
region of 
northern Romania.  This area is known nationwide as the last remnant of 
traditional
Romanian peasant 
culture.  Log houses, woven fences, horse & wagon, traditional dress & 
village culture are
still pervasive 
in the region, tho our host predictably talked about the loss of old ways, 
the invasion of
western 
desires, the European Union, & the tourisation of all that is marketable, 
since income is
scarce for 
many.

Throughout Romania alcoholic beverages are the pride & sustenance of the 
culture.  It is
not 
uncommon to find bottled water being more expensive than beer & wine & of 
course men who
do not 
drink heartily (such as myself) are viewed as somewhat of an oddity tho I've 
been trying
my best to live 
up to expectations.  

I arrived too late in the area to actually view the plums on the trees, but 
without
exaggeration, every 
yard had 5-50 plum trees mixed with a few apples.  The plums are harvested 
during the
first freeze & 
the majority of them are used to make horinca.  This is a double distilled 
alcohol that in
my estimation 
is somewhere around 80 proof.  The first distillation is called tzuica, & is 
somewhat
cloudy.  250 liters 
of plums produces 20 liters of tzuica.  The tzuica is then distilled a second 
time to
produce horinca 
(also known as palinca).  The process is quite time consuming since each 
person makes his
whole year 
supply non-stop.  Ioan had stayed up 3 days in a row to produce his batch.

[http://www.dreamtimevillage.org/horinca/hoteni_distillery.jpg]

 Horinca Distillery -- Hoteni, Romania 

The distillery is kind of a homemade affair that is privately owned, 
adjoining a cold
water river.  
Everyone in the area used the facility & each person paid for the use with a 
combination
of a bit of 
money & a percentage of the production.  After the first distillation is 
complete the mash
is simply 
spewed out onto the banks of the river & I imagine eventually washes 
downstream.

[http://www.dreamtimevillage.org/horinca/holding_vat.jpg]

 Holding vat for fermented plums

After the plums are picked they are put whole into giant vats & allowed to 
ferment for
about 3 weeks.  

[http://www.dreamtimevillage.org/horinca/still.jpg]

This distillery had 2 stills, one for the distillation of the mash to produce 
tzuica. 
Then the tzuica is 
redistilled in the other still to produce horinca.  Stills are quite common 
in Romania &
one can find 
them in markets, all with a fairly standard design.  They are wood fired & 
actually
require quite a bit of 
wood to keep going.  Reminds me of cooking down maple syrup the old way.


[http://www.dreamtimevillage.org/horinca/cooling_vat.jpg]

The still sends the vapor into a cooling vat fed by the river.  The vat has a 
pretty good
flow, to keep the 
temperature as low as possible, since the colder the cooling, the faster the 
steam with
condensate.

[http://www.dreamtimevillage.org/horinca/finished_horinca.jpg]

Sanitation & cleanliness are not really part of the picture (which is 
somewhat odd since
all the houses 
that we saw were immaculate) & the horinca drips into an old kettle sitting 
on the ground.
 As with the 
wine, the finished product is put in recycled 1 liter water bottles & stored 
in the
pantry.  I get the 
impression that for many without much access to cash, it serves as a form of 
currency.

[http://www.dreamtimevillage.org/horinca/ocna_sugatag_distillery.jpg]

 View of another horinca distillery in Ocna S(h)ugatag,
Romania

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