Novellino

 Celebrating Filipino traditions in silver anniversary rites

By Earl D.C. Bracamonte 

Novellino, the purveyor of non-alcoholic wines, celebrated its 25th anniversary at their state-of-the-art facility in Laguna. From a 300-sq.m leased property with 18 tanks in Valenzuela, the wine label has moved to its 1.3-hectare state-of-the-art facility within the sprawling Canlubang Estates.

The last 25 years saw the company create 17 wine varieties - from its first bottle of Rosso Tradizionale, the list has expanded to include Classico Bianco unto its Sparkling Red and fruit-flavored options like strawberry and blackberry.

From grape sourcing, blending, wine making, bottling, labeling, and distribution, Novellino has done these processes throughout its twenty five year journey, and beyond.

"For our expansion, we did warehouse capacity proofing; going vertical for the warehouse part. To address the issue of power shortages, we made the facility solar-powered. And to be environment-friendly, we treated our waste water with coco peat. We then evaporated it. The coco peat absorbs the toxic waste and the residue is fertilizer.

"Novellino fulfills consumer aspirations, like wine, and now the Philippines is a wine-drinking country. We make wine a part of the Filipino way of life," enthused Vicente 'Nonoy' Quimbo, CEO & founder of the family-owned enterprise.

Attendees to the event, including guest-of-honor Sen. Manny Villar, got an exclusive peek at the facility which showcased its advanced Alfa Laval centrifuge from Sweden. They're the first, and one of the few wineries in Asia, that has this modern equipment.

"One bath produces 42,000 bottles. Wine is a liquid expressed from the fresh pulp of grapes. We use the juice of the Vitis vinifera variety. It is marketed as a non-alcoholic wine so we procure it at a very fair market value because there's no excise tax; so we can bring the price down. 

"The last filter retards the fermentation process. We don't fully ferment the wine to keep the sweet juice. Egg whites clarify the juice and bring the sediments down. We lower the alcohol to sweeten the taste.

"Wine is the fastest growing category in the drink catalogue for the past five to ten years. As to consumption, France drinks a bottle per day. The Philippines only consumes a cup of wine per person per year, on average. Wine suits the palate where it was made or where the grapes were grown," informed president & general manager Chris Quimbo.

No one wine brand in the world has captured a 1% global market share. It's always less. And only one per cent of the labels grow in time. Fortunately, Novellino has joined the list of growing labels. Its Rosso Classico is comparable to the high-end Italian variety, Lambrusco.

"We market wine as a lifestyle product, which accounts for our 41.6% market share, and which drives the growth consumption in the Philippines; eventually cultivating a culture of new Filipino wine drinkers. Sampling was a major part of our initial program," Chris added.