Local wine maker eyes Japan mart

MANILA, Philippines - A native wine maker based in Candelaria, Quezon has signed for a marketing agreement with a Japanese businessman who got captivated with the product while on a business trip in Manila.

Rizalina D. Enriquez, president of Dory’s Distillery, Inc., said she feels confident that their lambanog could gain a foothold in the highly competitive Japanese market after it passed a strict quality and taste test in the country.

Enriquez said they started exporting their product to Guam last year, noting that it had gained wide acceptance among the locals and foreigners as well. Guam, a US territory in the Pacific, has a large population of Filipinos who have since migrated and settled there for good.

Established in 1969 as a small family business by her parents Vicente and Dory De Ocampo, Dory’s Distillery has grown into a corporation with more than 20 employees working as a coconut tree sap gatherers (mangangarit), plant operators, sales people and a chemist who does continuous research and quality control work.

Besides the rural areas, the firm now markets its lambanog product in Manila through the Kultura stores in the malls and Tesoro’s.

Dory’s lambanog comes in organic and fruit-flavored concoctions with varying alcohol contents and are packed in attractive packages. Enriquez credits the Design Center of the Philippines’ help in coming up with world-class package designs comparable to those foreign wine brands.

Its product lines include: Organic Lamba, 45 percent alcohol volume; Vicente Uno, 45 percent. Lambajack, 40 percent, Varique raisin flavor, 40 percent and Lambalites with strawberry flavor, 40 percent and Lamablites with strawberry flavor, blackberry flavor, melon flavor and bubblegum flavor with 22 percent alcohol volume.