Basi del Diablo has been getting reviews and thank you notes from its patrons since 2013. Now, we have hundreds of them and they are all saved in our hard drive. I think we might need a filing cabinet soon because just the other day, a Filipino based abroad sent a Christmas card to our physical address.

We supplied the wines for her wedding back in 2015 and she has been buying wines from us since. She would even send a few bottles to several addresses in the country before the holiday rush except during the pandemic when many Filipinos overseas lost their jobs.

We sent a card to her, too. After all, these gestures deserve reciprocation and attention.
If there is one thing that makes us special, it is perhaps the personal touch that we give to each and every order. We respond to everyone because we have no business being on social media if we don’t.

Queries are answered by our virtual assistants – Angel from customer care, Jef from dispatch, among others but I often jump into it as it were.

I think that no matter how big the wines get, if they ever will, I would still be doing the things that I do now. I would still man the machines because no one else knows them as well as I do. I will still taste and test every sugarcane juice supply and every grape juice supply. And every three years, I would still go to the farm to see if our suppliers’ juicers are well maintained. And I would still be making wine.

I would still do the necessary tests as they age as well as watch them like a helicopter mum once the bottling process begins. It’s boots on the ground. Always.

I soon forgot about the potential of that little arrangement with one of our patrons – of her sending wines to her relatives by purchasing them from us and letting us get those wines to her loved ones’ doorsteps. It’s quite sweet and it is nice to be a part of that.

I was only reminded of its potential when my friend Florence told me that I should get the online shop up and running. It is now live after maybe 72 hours of tweaking. Anyone abroad can now send wine to Luzon addresses through Basi del Diablo’s shop.