The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia

Like in many parts of the world, if you are in Slovakia and are going to be celebrating some momentous occasion, it’s likely that you would break open a bottle of bubbly. Though there are many kinds of champagne available in Slovakia, the most popular and locally made champagne is Hubert.

Almost everyone knows that the French have the best reputation for making quality wines and champagnes in Europe. What I didn’t know was that the generic word “champagne” is trademarked and only used to mean a champagne from the region in “Champagne” France. The more correct term for champagne is “sparkling wine” (also called “sekt” from the German).

“Hubert” sounds like a French name and indeed it is. How did a Slovak wine/sparkling wine company come to have a French name? It seems that there’s an interesting story with this, though it is all legend. The name belongs to Johann Evangelist Hubert, a French soldier with the Napoleonic Army who settled in Bratislava. Why settle in Slovakia? He had been an injured soldier recovering in a field hospital in Bratislava when he fell in love with his nurse and eventually married her.

But what’s special about Bratislava? In the blog I wrote about Svätý Jur, I mentioned that Bratislava is part of the “pentapolitana”, that is the five regions in western Slovakia that have a long tradition of wine making. These areas, just where the Malé Karpaty – Small Carpathian Mountains begin, are ideal for vineyards because of their sloping hills, good soil, and clement weather.

Apparently Mr. Hubert must have recognized this as well because in 1825 he began producing sparkling wine according to the original recipe for producing the real “champagne”.

Sound too far-fetched to be true? That’s because it is. Johann Evangelist Hubert did exist but he wasn’t the founder of the company. He was, however, connected to the real story of the Hubert J.E. company and several of his family members, including his wife, ran the company. If you’re interested, you can read about all 183 years of history on the Hubert J.E. website.

What is impressive is that the company can boast the fact that it was the first factory in Europe (outside of France) where sparkling wine was produced by the original French method. I also didn’t know that they had won many prestigious awards over the years as far back as 1867 when they won first prize in a wine competition during the world exhibition in Paris.

One sad note I read of the Hubert J.E. history was that the last Hubert to run the company was Henrik Hubert, son of the legendary Johann Evangelist Huber. Henrik ran the company from 1918 until 1945 when the company was confiscated from him and he was deported for being of “Hungarian nationality”. After that, the company was “nationalized” under the communists in 1948.

The company was established once again under private ownership in August 1995 and its headquarters are located in Sereď.

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