City pride: bottled and served

Friday, December 16, 2011

HERE'S an ear-grabbing, head-turning or even perhaps, tongue-twisting concept in wines that has been introduced in Cebu City: Conrad’s Mango Wine. Just by the name itself, it is inevitable that questions will come up in the minds of novices and purists alike.

Well, the first query might be: “Who in the world is this Conrad?” And next, “Could mangoes turn out to be fine wine?”

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To answer the first, the proprietor is Conrad P. Montilla: a guy who’s spent most of his life abroad, serving in the United States military before finally ending his career as a naval officer. But wherever his work brought him—Europe or North America—he always identified himself with Cebu, referring to this little island in the Pacific as where his family’s roots “have always been.”

“Cebu City is my home. I left as a child and visit, but this is where my family roots have always been. This is where I find the greatest sense of familial love out of all the places I’ve traveled,” he said.

The man wanted to try to push Cebu—in whatever way he could—to the world. A dinner experience with his mother two years ago during Mother’s Day gave him the idea how.

“I have rarely seen my mother in the greater part of my adult life. Since I’ve moved back, I do feel the urgency to make up for the feeling of loss before the time we have left together runs ever shorter.”

“I ordered a local house wine. I was going to impress her with the wine knowledge I had acquired while stationed in Naples, Italy for three years.” Much to his surprise, the establishment explained that there weren’t any local wines made.

“My mother and I celebrated my return with a bottle of wine from Italy. … At that moment, I did not know why that experience felt really awkward for me. I felt I was really missing out on a local experience where people showed city pride by their food and wine.”

So he took it upon himself to create a line of local wine, more importantly, one made out of the proudly local, yet internationally popular, fruit: mango.

“I use mango because I wanted to make a wine that I could say could only come from Cebu, trying to elevate the image of its culture and heritage.

Cebuanos identify with the fruit as part of our heritage since the country’s industry for mango products is here in Cebu. If I made grape wine and claimed that it was a Cebuano product, that would not make much sense because grapes are not indigenous to Asia. As a Cebuano, I would be coveting other people’s fruit,” Conrad said.

But how do we draw the line between trend and tradition? The taste of grape has already been accepted far and wide by those who enjoy a good glass of wine from time to time. For Conrad, it’s almost like bringing a new tradition to life, although critics might see this one as too tall an order—but the man is unfazed.

“My target market is not the purists. My target is the Cebuanos themselves. A Cebuano can also be a purist, but since he is a Cebuano, I surmise that he does want the sophisticated side of his own culture and heritage to be represented in wines. So, therefore, this mango wine is for all Cebuanos.”

According to him, one advantage of mango wine over grape wine is that it doesn’t need a lot of aging time before it tastes good. Grapes contain a lot of tannic acid, thus taking a lot more time to mature.

“Part of the success of this project for me was breaking myths. ‘I can’t make wine out of mangoes.’ Wrong. ‘I can’t ferment wine in this tropic heat.’ Wrong. ‘I can’t store wine at this humidity.’ I am finding out that that is wrong also.

It may be true of grape wines, but I seem to be doing well with my wine made with an indigenous fruit at its own climate,” he said.

It’s no secret, though, that his wines are on the sweeter side. But like it or not, the betterment of Cebu is what pushes the man in creating and pushing this brand of
drink.

“The mango wine is sweet because that’s the unanimous appeal of my taste test subjects who were purely Cebuanos, both rich and poor. It tastes like that because it is made by a Cebuano, for his fellow Cebuanos, to celebrate us for being Cebuanos. I could have made a mango wine like the mango wines of the rest of the world, but that would alienate who I want to give my adoration towards.”