Japan’s own rice wine, sake, is now sold and enjoyed around the world, and its success is giving Sabah wine makers big ideas.
Will wine connoisseurs outside Sabah go for a lihing straight up or prefer a montoku blended with exotic forest fruits?
Local wine-makers Pison Jaujip and Stephanus Lucas are putting their money on the exotic blends.
Long-time best friends, they are experimenting with combining their own wine with fruit and vegetables. So far, they have successfully combined it with banana and ginger, and are now venturing into blends with local fruit perhaps unfamiliar to potential drinkers outside of the state.
The pair are not afraid to blend their wine with the funkier durian smell-alikes native to Borneo, and Sabah in particular. They have found that bambangan, a savoury mango with a durian-like aroma, makes a palatable blend that sells well.
“We also market a blend of montoku wine and tarap, a fruit similar to durian but not so intense. We call it Wild Jackfruit. Exotic names attract customers, especially tourists,” said Stephanus.
Pison maintains the response has been encouraging.
“We could use globally available fruit like apples or oranges, but we want to be unique and truly represent Sabah. That’s a big part of our marketing strategy.”
The team promote their potions through Pison’s Facebook page, Ropuhan di Tanak Wagu, which he started as a cooking channel and now has over 32,000 followers.
They believe that their products have the potential to succeed in a far wider market because they are unique.
There is a fundamental problem, though.
“We can’t really sell our products without an alcohol licence but no new licences are currently being issued. We are hoping the new government will lift the suspension because then we can sell to pubs and generally expand,” said Pison.
Sabah wine usually has an alcohol content of between 13% and 21%, higher than commercially available wine which comes in at around 12%.
“Because of the licence problem, we try to be creative in making it clear on the bottle that the contents contain alcohol without actually using the word. So we say things like ‘drink responsibly’ or ‘happy juice’ on the label,” Pison explained.
Currently, they sell their products online and some souvenir shops have agreed to sell them too. Curious tourists buy a percentage but the bulk of their customers are still loyal locals.
Penampang is famous for lihing, a sweet wine made from fermented glutinous rice usually quaffed chilled or used in cooking. Chicken soup with lihing is a local favourite, not only sipped by women in confinement but also imbibed to chase away the flu.
Market traders source their wares from wine makers in their villages while some make it themselves.
One such artisan trader, Ida, said her latest batch of lihing has been fermenting in her kitchen for almost a year. “I want to make sure the taste is just right so that my lihing is the best in this market,” she said.
Ida, a Sarawakian married to a local Kadazan, said she learned the art of brewing lihing and montoku from her in-laws. When she started making it she wanted her lihing to be both good for cooking and delicious enough for drinking, which it turned out to be.
Ida sells her wine for RM15 a bottle at the market but she too has ambitions to expand.
“I think my wines are good enough to be sold more widely,” she said. “I’d be interested if anybody wants to help me sell my products.
FMT asked Sabah Agriculture and Food Industry minister Junz Wong what his ministry is doing to promote products such as rice wine to the local and larger markets.
“There are lots of Sabah products but many are not known by consumers,” he said. “I think local stores including supermarkets should be more passionate about selling Sabah products.”
He encouraged entrepreneurs to use social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to market their products.
Perhaps a good start would be to resume issuing the suspended alcohol licences.
Packaging will probably have to be improved too if these ambitious entrepreneurs really want their wine to conquer the world. At the moment it’s often sold locally in used beer bottles.