Ilocano wine brand Basi Maria has been found by a local in Japan. Basi del Diablo’s team hid the wine bottle at the Osaka Castle grounds on May 3 and was found a day later. The group was informed that the man who found the Basi Maria bottle drank the wine with family and friends that night.

Basi del Diablo started the wine scavenger hunt on January 31st when Salucop Group’s CEO Sigrid Salucop hid the first bottle at her grandmother’s yard. She posted it on her Instagram account, noting that anyone who finds the wine is requested to tag her on social media with the hashtag #bitchifoundyourwine. Wine Bottle No.1 was a bottle of Virginia Blush. It was found by Feiry Rose Lamarca on February 1, 2019. The wine Ms Lamarca found was named after Virginia Mangapit, the group’s Executive Vice President and Sigrid Salucop’s maternal grandmother.

The second bottle was hidden at Kingfisher Kitesurfing Hotel in Pagudpud. It was found by professional kitesurfer Rex Pedronan. Wine Bottle No.2 was a De La Bodega, a sweet wine produced in small batches. The company only produced 50 bottles of this sugarcane and grape concoction in 2012. All bottles have been sold and the 2013 vintage is now available at Wilfred’s and La Preciosa.

The Hashtag #bitchifoundyourwine

The Japanese man who found the bottle at the castle grounds omitted a part of the hashtag because “he is too polite,” a friend of Salucop commented on Facebook on Saturday.

“This was expected of course. Our Japanese neighbours are quite polite and using the hashtag would go against their values even if it is in jest,” Salucop says.

“What we were truly worried about is the wine being surrendered to the police as it can be considered as a missing item,” she adds.

Wine Bottle No. 3 is made from cabernet sauvignon grapes and sugarcane. It was named after Salucop’s paternal grandmother Maria Cuanang Salucop.