Region & History

Where does slivovice come from? In the Czech Republic, almost always from Moravian Wallachia, a hilly region in the east of the country where meadows, forested ridges, and plum trees share the slopes. Right in the middle lies Vizovice near Zlín, home to the Rudolf Jelínek distillery. According to the company, it was founded in 1894, and the first written record of a distillery on the estate is the 1585 land register of the Vizovice estate.

The plum brandies themselves are younger than this record. The house dates the production of slivovice to the mid-18th century and describes the late 19th century as the heyday of local distilleries, a period that also saw its own founding. That's a company's view of its own history, but the region tells a similar story: plums were part of everyday farm life here long before anyone filled a bottle.

A Czech peculiarity is the custom distillery, or pěstitelská pálenice. Here, fruit growers have their fruit or fermented mash distilled without owning a still themselves. Under Czech excise tax law, a fruit grower may have up to 30 liters of alcohol from their own fruit distilled at a reduced rate per distilling period, which runs from July 1 to June 30. They declare in writing that they meet the conditions, and neither they nor members of their household may sell the brandy. Any amount beyond that is taxed at the full rate.

There is no EU protected designation of origin for Czech or Slovak brandies, not even for slivovice from Vizovice. Still, the name is legally sound: in both countries, a fruit brandy may be named after the fruit with a suffix, hence slivovice and slivovica, and EU regulation also recognizes the short term Slibowitz for plum brandy. In Vizovice, the Jelínek house also runs its own museum dedicated to slivovice.