February 5, 2006
Bila fruit wines at its best
The production of homemade fruit wines has become a new industry for the people of Bila, Bauko, Mt. Province nowadays. In the yesteryears, they are known for their quality clay pots, which the neighboring provinces of Ilocos, Isabela and Benguet used to recognize as the area’s pride.
Barangay Bila pioneered the mass production of fruit wines. However, it is only at present, when it became popular nationally, and other municipalities of Mt. Province also started venturing in it.
Fruit winemaking was introduced in Bila in the late 1990s. Mila Dalasen pioneered the production, and cherry wine was her first product. According to stories, Dalasen learned cherry winemaking from a couple in barangay Otucan, Bila’s neighboring barangay. When she started it, her neighbors followed suit. To date, there are 52 members of the association. Including the non-members, they all summed up to less than 100.
They have innovated winemaking by using other fruits like guavas, lemons, pineapples, bugnay, strawberries, gingers, and grapes. All fruits are readily available on their backyards. Only strawberries come from La Trinidad, Benguet.
These fruit wines are additional to the traditional tapey (rice wine) that the Ibila (Bila settlers) usually produce. Like the tapey, fruit winemaking started for domestic consumption only and as tokens for visitors. The visitors’ approval of their wines brought up the idea to commercialize it.
Cion Ayeo, a winemaker, said that for a good wine to be produced, fermentation should take five to six months.
According to the Wine Processors Association President Maureen Lumabas, it was in the 2000’s when winemaking boomed. They gained the support of a nun, Sister Shirley Agoo. She was also a wine producer; thus, she conducted various seminars for the Ibila.
Dressing up the bottles
Packaging, which includes labeling and sealing their wine bottles, has been an important factor in selling the Bila fruit wines. At first, they used recycled bottles of commercially branded wines. Today, most of their products are now in longneck bottles with appealing labels and seals.
Competition in the market urged the producers to opt for a more presentable wine packaging, compared to their former labels.
Delia Napat-a, vice president of the association, recently organized the wine producers to get their labels, tags and seals in bulk orders from the printing press. However, she refused to disclose figures.
The wine scene
The wine producers recently joined the Lang-ay Festival of Mt. Province, a festival that highlights the area’s wine products. They also participated in the Adivay festival of Benguet.
Their participation to the national trade fair held last summer gave way to the Ibila wine producers to the national market. Bulk orders from Manila started to emerge. They look forward to enter the Manila market again in March 2006.
“The demand for (our) wine is really increasing,” Lumabas claimed. However, she said that though the demand is high, they could not provide enough supply. Some producers lack capital for the equipment, materials and ingredients needed in the production. Some prefer their jobs since some have pre-occupations. A few of them are farmers, teachers, and employees of some companies.
Marketing the wines
Wine products are named after the producers or their children.
To date, prices per bottle range from P80-P150, or P1,000-P1,200 per case. They market through wholesale, retail, or by orders through some outlets.
A winemaker also shared that sometimes they sell 5-gallon wines. It is up to the buyers to rebottle and/or repackage their wine.
Today, not only Bila residents are into the fruit wine venture. Mt. Province towns like Tadian, Sagada, Sadanga and others, now engage in the production.
However, Lumabas says that despite the fame and glory their fruit wines are fast gaining, the Ibilas do not forget their “tapey as the original and authentic Bila wine.” # Florence Batawang/ UP Intern for NORDIS
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