Philippine wine

Philippine wine or Filipino wine are various wines produced in the Philippines. They include indigenous wines fermented from palm sap, rice, job's tears, sugarcane, and honey; as well as modern wines mostly produced from various fruit crops.

Pre-colonial

Indigenous wine-making traditions in the Philippines dates back to before the colonization of the islands by the Spanish in the 16th century. They were usually part of the traditional '' tapay'' fermentation process and were fermented inside earthen jars known as ''tapayan''. They were consumed both for recreation and in the animist rituals in the various indigenous '' anito'' religions. Heavy consumption of tubâ and other alcoholic beverages in the Philippines were reported by early Spanish colonizers. Social drinking ('' tagayan'' or ''inuman'' in Tagalog and Visayan languages) was and continues to be an important aspect of Filipino social interactions. Indigenous wines include the following:

Palm wines

Among the most widely prevalent wines produced in the Philippines is the ''tubâ'' which is produced from palm saps. The most common types of ''tubâ'' are made from coconut and nipa palm sap. ''Tubâ'' can also be made from the kaong palm (''Arenga pinnata'') and fishtail palms (''Caryota'' spp.), which are known as ''tuhak'' and ''tunggang'', respectively.

A notable variant of ''tubâ'' from the Visayan peoples of Visayas and Mindanao is the '' bahalina'', which is distinctively reddish-brown in color due to the use of bark extracts from certain mangrove species. ''Tubâ'' is also commonly consumed with raw egg yolks and other sweet ingredients, a combination known as ''kinutil''.

During the Spanish colonial period, distillation technologies were adopted by native Filipinos as early as 1574, resulting in improvised stills known as '' kawa''. These were used to distill tubâ into a palm liquor known as ''vino de coco'' or ''vino de nipa'', which is now known as '' lambanóg'' in modern times.

Rice wines

Rice wines used to be common in pre-colonial times, as part of the process of '' tapay'' production, but now only survive among relatively isolated ethnic groups in the islands. The ''pangasi'' of the Visayans, for example, is now virtually extinct. However, a version survives among the Subanen people, which can also be made from job's tears (''adlay''), though even this is starting to disappear as the starch source is increasingly being replaced by cassava. ''Pangasi'' also survives among the Sulodnon people of Panay, though it has also been replaced with sugarcane.

Among the Manobo people of Bukidnon, a similar rice wine exists called '' agkud''. It is flavored with ginger and sugarcane juice. In the northern Philippines, the only surviving rice wine is the ''tapuy'' of the Igorot people, also known locally as ''baya''. It is mixed with ginger and roots. It is a very important part of traditional rituals of the highland tribes.''Rice Wine Technology Bulletin'', Philippine Rice Research Institute (2000)

Sugarcane wines

Sugarcane wines include the ''basi'' of the Ilocanos and the ''palek'' of the Ivatan. ''Basi'' is notable in that it caused the 1807 Basi Revolt when Spanish authorities tried to ban the private manufacture of ''basi''.

Another sugarcane wine was the ''intus'' of Visayas and Mindanao. It is largely extinct, though it still partially survives among the Lumad peoples of Mindanao where it is flavored with ''langkawas'' (''Alpinia galanga'') or ''pal-la'' ('' Cordyline fruticosa'') roots.

Mead

Mead made from honey were rare, even in precolonial times. They are now extinct and only known from colonial sources. They include the ''kabarawan'' of the Visayans which was made from honey mixed with bark from the kabarawan tree ('' Neolitsea villosa''); and the '' bais'' of the Mandaya and Manobo people which is made from honey and water.

Modern wines

Most of the modern wines produced in the country are based on locally produced crops with grape-based wines mostly imported from Australia and European countries. In 2012, it was reported that previous attempts to produce grapes which are suitable enough for wine making in northern Philippines failed due to unsuitable soil conditions and high temperatures.

Modern local wines are mostly fruit wines, including bignay wine made from bignay berries (''Antidesma bunius''); guyabano wine made from soursop ('' Annona muricata''); mangosteen wine made from mangosteen; duhat wine made from black plum ('' Syzygium cumini''); and mango wine made from Philippine mangoes. Another locally produced wine is oregano wine from Quezon produced from Cuban oregano (''Plectranthus amboinicus'').

Liqueurs produced from the colonial era are also commonly sold as "wine". The most popular are '' anisado'', anise liqueurs generally infused with various herbal ingredients by early Chinese-Filipino immigrants. A notable variant of ''anisado'' is ''anisado Mallorca'', or simply ''Mallorca'', which adds sugar and can also be used as a cooking wine.

References

See also

* Winemaking
* History of wine
{{Philippine cuisine
Wine
Wine by country
Filipino cuisine