The family producer was granted the honourable title of Purveyor to the Imperial and Royal Court, together with the right to use the Imperial eagle emblem. Its choice vodkas and liqueurs were featured increasingly often in international fairs and exhibitions, winning numerous accolades and prestigious prizes. This means of promotion – popular at the time – led to the firm’s wares joining the favourite drinks enjoyed by the populace of the Habsburg Empire.

Józef Adam Baczewski, the founder’s great-grandson, took the company’s reins – and the initials seen in the company’s logo to this very day are his. As befitted an industrialist, this great patriot – a participant in the January Uprising – set about expanding the family business with energy and zeal. He soon realised that an exceptional product required special presentation, and was one of the first in the world to pour refined spirits into exquisitely shaped clear-glass decanters, adorned with striking labels. For decades to come the elegant bottles were to be a distinguishing feature of the Lviv distillery.

At the General National Exhibition held in Lviv, and organised under the patronage of his Majesty the Emperor and King Franz Joseph I, the company presented an impressive pavilion in the shape of a gigantic decanter.

The company was granted the right to use the title of Galician National Producer of Rosoglios and Liqueurs. The very latest in equipment was installed in the factory at this point, including a two-column continuous still devised by Aeneas Coffey – thanks to which Baczewski’s spirits outperformed the wares of the competition in clarity and subtlety of flavour.

After the end of the war, the heirs Stefan – son of Leopold – and Adam – son of Henryk – began expanding the factory. Every day almost 350 engineers, technicians and qualified specialists would pass through its gates. Producing delectable spirits based on traditional recipes, but using the latest machinery and equipment, the factory’s production capacity soon meant that every day almost seven standard-gauge railway trucks could be filled with its bottles.

The Baczewskis were to become the precursors of large-scale promotional activities in Poland. Brochures and press announcements featuring enchanting illustrations and comment in rhyme were proof of the company’s imagination and skill at utilising advertising’s potential. Edward Kazubski, an outstanding Lviv artist going by the pseudonym “Lu-Can”, was responsible for the business’s unique campaign comprising almost 60 designs.

The Baczewskis’ wares garnered all possible awards at the London Spirits Competition. And a year later, within the grounds of the Eastern Trade Fair, the company’s famous advertising tower was built – used as a broadcasting mast for the first Polish Radio broadcasting station in Lviv.

Intensive canvassing led to the company’s owners signing contracts with two Polish transatlantic liners, the SS Polonia and the MS Piłsudski. In the early 1930s Baczewski vodkas and liqueurs also began travelling by air to Paris, Prague and Vienna, where the company opened subsidiaries.

Products by the company “J.A. BACZEWSKI” accompanied the elite circles of the Second Polish Republic during lavish receptions, banquets and balls. They were also an inseparable element of get-togethers among friends, during family celebrations, and at ordinary Sunday dinners. 
By the late 1930s the company was exporting its exquisite spirits to almost all countries in Europe, as well as both the Americas and Australia.

The factory in Zniesienie and warehouses in Zamarstynow – the fruit of many years of work by the Baczewski family – were destroyed and burnt down as a result of bombing by the Luftwaffe in early September, and then plundered by the Soviet occupiers. Adam and Stefan, the last of the pre-war owners, died in NKVD camps in 1940. Such was the tragic end to this Polish business in Lvov, in operation without a break for 157 years.

The heirs of the Baczewski family recovered their rights to the trademark, and together with their relative Eduard Gessler, using miraculously saved recipes, renewed production in the company’s Viennese branch. The wording “Fondée 1782 Lwów “ on the products’ labels testifies to its bond with the company’s history.

The first batch of “J.A. BACZEWSKI” brand products arrived in the United States, which was soon to become the biggest customer for spirits from the Viennese factory. VODKA MONOPOLOWA was and remains a favourite for many a gourmet and connoisseur, and is also valued by specialists – year after year attaining the best scores at trade fairs and competitions organised around the world.

Following 72 years in emigration, the vodka of J.A. BACZEWSKI returned to Poland. Today, just like before the war, every one of us can enjoy the excellent taste of the company’s exquisite spirits, appealing to an ever growing number of followers. And thanks to them, the 235-year history of this Polish family business extends – with every glass drunk – a little further.