This is not a story about murder. It’s about our red wine Basi Maria and why I love it in stew. If you are like me, you will agree that beef stew is pure comfort and adding red wine to it elevates its flavours more. It’s not rocket science and you know this as well…

As the world came to realise that we were going to stay inside our homes for a long time, questions about the virus and the development of a vaccine were thrown at experts. Decision makers put together policies for social distancing and in poor nations like the Philippines, amelioration programs had to be up and…

Once COVID-19 is banished by a powerful vaccine, the lockdown in the Philippines will be lifted and everyone of legal age will be able to drink alcohol again. While scientists are racing for a cure and a vaccine, many people around the world would have to quench their thirst with something non-alcoholic for the meantime. Imagine,…

Wines under the Basi del Diablo brand are now available at Kamarinn Cafe, an establishment located near Lake Paoay in Ilocos Norte province. Cases of Basidina and Basi Maria were delivered to the restaurant on March 13, a day after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered a community quarantine in the country’s capital. Now that the…

The Basi del Diablo team may have stopped operations due to the liquor ban but its research and development projects are still ongoing, according to the brand’s director Sigrid Salucop. Salucop, who is also the CEO of Basi del Diablo’s mother company Salucop Group, says that “it is one of the things that shouldn’t be…

We take comfort in the fact that better days will come but for now we must endure. We will see each other again very soon.

Disclaimer: There is a liquor ban in the Province of Ilocos Norte which means that selling and drinking alcoholic beverages is illegal for the time being. It is also important for wine enthusiasts to know that the World Health Organization warned that alcohol in general is “an unhelpful coping strategy” for the global health crisis…

There is nothing like a global health emergency that helps us mortals determine what is important. For me, it is family, health, and access to rice but in the evenings, when there is nothing left to do but watch Netflix, I realise that I also need wine.

“This is the right thing to do. I know though that we can’t set the trend since we are a small company but I am wishing that anyone with a business will follow suit if such a move is within their means. This is easy for us because we maintain a very small team in our manufacturing plant as most of the processing done are done by machines,” Salucop says.

Wine has been served in diplomatic dinners and lunches for centuries and in its capacity as the liquid welcoming mat, it has broken barriers, relaxed tense atmospheres, and has turned dry dialogues into meaningful conversations. As a winemaker, I am inclined to say that very few deals have been sealed over fruit juice or a cup of tea although the latter likely works for the English.