Feature: Ilocos Norte’s native ginger good as local wine

Cherry Joy D. Garma, Philippine Information Agency

Another local-tasting wine is a must-buy in the market as Dumalneg, Ilocos Norte’s introduces its ‘one-town, one-product’ (OTOP) made of ginger or the native laya in Ilocano.

The native wine called by the locals as “Laya Wine” is starting to create abuzz among the visiting tourists here for its bittersweet but striking taste which is good for those looking for another local wine apart from bugnay in Adams town.

The wine, which has a main component of the local ginger here, has other ingredients to include honey, some yeast, and manageable alcohol content to boost its marketability.

The municipality of Dumalneg in Ilocos Norte has started to offer the wine as their OTOP in 2011 after Lilian Baguing, a local in said town, started to process the ginger juice into a wine.

“This wine processing has helped us a lot in providing additional income to our family and sending our kids to school,” said Baguing.

In making the wine, Baguing said they are not using any preservatives and recyclable bottles to prevent the product to form any form of contamination, but rather uses only natural product such as the main ingredient, ginger.

Dumalneg is known for its rich farm land and native crops which includes ginger as part of their usual crops apart from rice, vegetables, and corn.

Baguing, together with her family, has indeed thought of making use of the ginger to create another product not just as a condiment when cooking adobo, sautéed vegetables, or the famous Ilocano cuisine pinakbet.

With the help of their municipal mayor, the ginger byproduct has been endorsed to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

Today, the local wine is being sold in the market for P220 each bottle with 70 ml content.

According to the Department of Health (DOH), ginger has many health benefits. It helps regulate normal blood circulation and is good in fighting cough and colds. Experts also said that ginger can help fight ovarian cancer and recommended in helping boost the immune system. (JNDP/CJDG, PIA-1, Ilocos Norte)