The coconut is being pushed to make the Philippines known for a classy wine that can keep up with elite wines as government engages in a wine study that involves the Champagne Institute of France.

The Philippine Coconut Authority has commissioned a pilot study that will last up to one year to come up with a laboratory scale 7,200-liter coconut wine production (9,600) bottles at 750 milliliter).

The wine material will be derived from tuba or coconut toddy which comes from the nectar sap of inflorescence (coconut flower juice) of the tree to be processed within five hours from harvest.

Acknowledged Filipino winemaker Marius Diaz, who studied wine-making in Dijon, France, said the Champagne Institute of France, world's most prestigious wine school, has formulated the special yeast for the Philippine coconut wine.

The country also has to import vinificants for the wine. "It can be a breakthrough. Wine is a cultural product. It has a class, Tuba doesn't have that class image. We hope to change this image by using the same product and market it such that the Philippines can come up with something (Filipinos can be known for), "said Diaz at a MOA (Memorandum of Agreement) signing with PCA.

The wine is being developed to stand aloft with globally-known French champagne, Russian vodka, or the Japanese sake.

PCA Administrator Oscar G. Gain said the coconut wine will make another by product from the versatile coconut tree and further add value and competitiveness to the Philippine indigenous nut. Besides, the Malaysian oil palm cannot produce a wine, but the local coconut can be made one which gives it a comparative advantage.

The coconut wine, proposed to be called "nilak" (ni for niyog, lak for alak or bulaklak), tastes more distinctly from tuba. This is as it comes from the coconut sap which is a good source of wine since it has a high sugar content placed at 16 percent compared to coconut juice's less than eight percent.

The wine has to be processed within five hours or it will ascetify to produce vinegar.

PCA Deputy Administrator Carlos Carpio said the Japanese Embassy has provided a P5.5 million fund for the pilot study. Japan is interested in ensuring food safety in the coconut wine which can be guaranteed through the use of sanitary, cultured wine.

"I have to isolate coconut sap from its(potentially poisonous) natural yeast and ferment it with cultured yeast," said Diaz.

Carpio cited cases of death among drinkers of lambanog which is distilled tuba (or coconut vodka, although vodka really stands for an alcoholic beverage that uses cereal like potato, wheat and barley). Poisoning must have been a result of contamination of the beverage from ambient yeast (which comes from naturally-occurring decaying substances that ferment the tuba).

The wine program is also aimed at poverty alleviation as it will give livelihood to rural coconut farmers who can export the product to the US, Europe, China and Japan.

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