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Alcoholic drinks from Philippines

Bignay wine (Philippine Antidesma fruit wine)bignay

Bignay wine is a red fruit wine made from the berries of the bignay tree (Antidesma bunius). The berries are crushed and diluted with three parts water, then fermented on their skins and pulp for three days with wine yeast before the skins are removed. The wine is rich in anthocyanins and phenolics; it is traditionally aged in glass or plastic, and local wooden barrels have been tested.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks3.1 months

Recipe

Bignay wine (Philippine Antidesma fruit wine), a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Ringer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceThe ratio is the optimum found in a University of the Philippines Los Baños thesis (Ocampo 2006); no fixed batch size is given.
Ripe bignay berries, crushed1 part by weight[ocampo2006]
Water3 parts by volumeThe 1:3 (w/v) dilution was best for berries from three Laguna towns[ocampo2006]
Wine yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. ellipsoideus)[ocampo2006]
Starterdefined-culture (Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. ellipsoideus)

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.1 months

Start
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What changes: Bignay berries are crushed and mixed with three parts water

Step 1 of 4
Crush the berries and dilute with water
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts
Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Output: must.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Bignay wine is a red fruit wine made from the berries of the bignay tree (Antidesma bunius). The berries are crushed and diluted with three parts water, then fermented on their skins and pulp for three days with wine yeast before the skins are removed. The wine is rich in anthocyanins and phenolics; it is traditionally aged in glass or plastic, and local wooden barrels have been tested. Made in 4 steps over 3.1 months. The longest step, age in glass, plastic or wood, takes 3 months (Balagot K.W. et al. 2025). Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. ellipsoideus does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3 monthsReported[balagot2025]Age in glass, plastic or wood

What makes this one different

Bignay wine is made from a berry diluted with three parts water and given only three days on its skins and pulp. Its anthocyanin content was higher than in three commercial red wines it was compared with.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Two-stage bignay drinkAlcoholic fermentation followed by 3.5 days of acetic fermentation with 75 % fruit must, for a phenolic-rich vinegar-type drink.

Safety

Barrel-aged bignay wines in one study met the Philippine wine standard (PNS/FDA 30:2010).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

A 2006 thesis at the University of the Philippines Los Baños tested bignay from Los Baños, Santa Cruz and Pagsanjan and found the best dilution, skin-contact time and yeast strain.

  1. [ocampo2006] Ocampo G.S. 2006, Evaluation of the quality and composition of bignay (Antidesma bunius (L.) Spreng) wine at different stages of production, thesis, University of the Philippines Los Baños (abstract, FAO AGRIS)paper
  2. [belina2013] Belina-Aldemita M.D., Sabularse V.C., Dizon E.I., Hurtada W.A., Torio M.A.O. 2013, Antioxidant properties of bignay (Antidesma bunius (L.) Spreng.) wine at different stages of processing, The Philippine Agricultural Scientist 96:308–313 (abstract)paper
  3. [leyeza2025] Leyeza V.E.B., Castillo-Israel K.A.T., Lizardo-Agustin R.C.M. 2025, Optimization of the two-stage fermentation process for Antidesma bunius (L.) Spreng. fruit toward the development of phenolic-rich beverage, Journal of Microbiology, Biotechnology and Food Sciences 15(1):e10969 (full text read; methods section)paper
  4. [balagot2025] Balagot K.W. et al. 2025, Evaluation of physico-chemical properties, total phenolic content, and antioxidant activities of bignay wine aged in non-oak wooden barrel, Philippine Journal of Science 154(5) (abstract)paper