Cardoms Mountain Wines

The small town of Adams has gone this far without much "reconstruction of the road," shunning from any misuses, flaunting its natural beauty. Palemlem, rainforests, waterfalls, rivers, even the weeds and rocks, all served for Adams’ walk to fame. It didn’t require a lot of publicities but a support from the folks, which is very evident as they weren’t tempted to burn the mountains for farming, cut

the trees for plumbing and use dynamites for fishing. Being a crimeless community therefore thrives in not only the tourism industry but also other businesses – winemaking industry tops these. Winemaking industry in Adams includes the production of wine made from local products such as glutinous rice (tapuey) and wildberry fruit (bugnay). It was started a few years ago thru the initiative of Dr. Bielmaju Waly-Bawingan aiming to help the community people increase their income as well as promote local culture and tourism. The bugnay wine has this quirky but pleasant taste and aroma which is likened to a grape wine hence preferred by consumers. It is reddish to purplish in color, resembling like any other red wines. Truly, elegance can now be as simple as having a supply of bugnay wine in the house. Bugnay contains naturally occurring colored pigments called flavonoids, specifically anthocyanins. These anthocyanins are considered to play a beneficial role in visual acuity, heart diseases, cancer, age-related neurodegenerative disorders, diabetes and bacterial infections. Winemaking is a laborious process. It includes extracting of juice, dilution, fermentation, aging process, separating residues, bottling, corking, labeling and packaging. During the course of fermentation, fruit sugars are converted to alcohol known as ethanol, a colorless liquid with pleasant smell. The wine is sold all over Ilocos Norte. A 750 ml. or 25.4 fl. bottle costs about 100 to 115 pesos in retail stores. The product is 12 percent in alcohol content and with its potential health effects, it is safe to drink. The production of Adams’ Bugnay Wine is assisted by the Department of Science and Technology.