Wine Museum in the Philippines?

The Joseph brothers are at it again... this time around, an ambitious project called the Wine Museum.

If anyone or any group is to pull this off, the Joseph brothers are definitely your best bets to do so.

With almost 34 years of unparalleled wine experience, the Josephs are now super entrenched in the local wine industry through both their wholesale and retail operations. The brothers, composed of Bobby, Ralph, Ronnie and Raymond, are now envisioning a wine enclave for the growing number of wine enthusiasts in the country. I had a preview of this wine hub and believe that this vision is not far from being a reality, and sooner than we imagine.

Napa Technology WineStation

The Wine Museum is housed in a four-story building within the Josephs’ property in Tramo Road, Pasay City (near a flyover). The first floor is a restaurant and wine bar. The restaurant brags of a wine vending machine similar to that of the popular Cav Wine Bar at the Fort Bonifacio Global City Strip.

While Cav uses the brand Enomatic from Italy for their wine vending machine, the Josephs went to California and use Napa Technology for a very similar system. Known as the “WineStation,” a patented name from Napa Technology, these wine vending machines come in sets of four wine dispensers. The Wine Museum had six sets installed, for a total of 24 wines offered by-the-glass. This wide selection is made possible through a sophisticated wine vending system that automatically omits possible wine oxidation with nitrogen gas to preserve quality. Philippine Wine Merchant (a Joseph enterprise) is also the exclusive Philippine distributor and the importer of the WineStation machines.

Wine by-the-glass selection

With Ralph Joseph at the helm, and Philippine Wine Merchant as the wine importer, the Wine Museum gets to boast of some of the best wine by-the-glass programs seen in the country. On my visit I saw Cuvaison Carneros Pinot Noir, Montes Alpha Merlot, Marques de Murrieta Rioja Reserva, Pirramimma Mclaren Vale Petit Verdot as amongst the great wines available in the WineStation machine. What’s more amazing is the price... the wines are offered at wine shop retail prices. The WineStation offers each wine in three convenient portions: tasting portion of 25 ml., half-glass portion of 75 ml., and full-glass portion of 150 ml. Incredibly, the price per tasting portion is directly proportionate to the retail price of the portion itself. So a 150-ml. serving of a standard 750-ml. wine bottle is priced at the retail of the wine, divided by five. For example, a Montes Alpha retailing at P1,200 would be priced, respectively, at only P240/full glass, P120/half glass, and P40/tasting portion, truly a treat even to the budget-conscious wine drinkers. And on the food part, the Wine Museum offers a Spanish-influenced menu, with prices also equally incomparable. Food prices range from a low of P120 for the Longaniza de Vigan to a high of only P390 for a Paella de Mariscos. Coffee is only P60 per cup. In my estimation, a dinner date for two, complete with decent meals and good wines, per head cost is just around P600—nowhere else can you find a wine place where this budget is enough.

The wine education center

The second floor of the Wine Museum is positioned as the wine education center. In this floor, you can see wine artifacts including an antique wine pressing machine, old grape vine, oak barrels, etc... This floor, as Ralph Joseph told me, is still a working progress. The second floor will be used to hold wine classes, complete with video presentations and wine-tasting sessions. The floor can be booked for wine launches and other wine activities. While the floor is not yet fully complete, I can already see where it is heading. I am reminded of the old Australian Wine Centre in Adelaide, which is also compact, but loaded with wine information, conducive to the learning of wine. I am excited to see what else is coming to further ornament the second floor. Eldest sibling Bobby Joseph also confirmed that the Wine Museum is getting an accreditation from Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and is negotiating partnerships with all the major culinary and hospitality schools to do a more standardized wine training program for Filipinos.

This will certainly be a great way of upgrading wine service and knowledge in the country.

Hotel rooms

On the third and fourth floors are the hotel rooms. While this may sound awkward, it actually makes sense for people who just enjoy drinking and partying without worrying on how to drive home safely, or on having “labor issues” with drivers who work on unholy hours. After drinking good wines, guests can just throw cushion to the wind, and relax at the Wine Museum hotel. The Wine Museum has eight all new fully-furnished rooms. Nothing to scoff at, these rooms use bed linens, comforters and pillows similar to the deluxe hotels. Very quiet and far from the noisy center of busy downtowns, the hotel rooms can be a good hideaway for the busy executives, and even very discreet people. Prices on the rooms range from a low of P2,000 to a high of P3,500 for their luxury suite.

All in all, the Wine Museum is a great new wine venue to visit. While the location in Tramo, Pasay is not very ideal, the concept place is worth the extra journey. When asked why Tramo, Pasay as the location, Bobby replied in a heartbeat “We do not want to compete with our hotel and restaurant clients [Philippine Wine Merchant being one of the biggest wine suppliers in the country]. Aside from this, we are rent-free here being our own place, so that affords us to subsidize our operations and keep prices very friendly.” So there you have it, the Wine Museum is a vision of the Joseph brothers, but one that can be enjoyed by every wine-loving Pinoy. And if Montes Alpha is just P240/glass, how can anyone pass this off?

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