Brandy Museum is located in the Festive Walk Parade beside the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art (ILOMOCA). Admission is free, and this is open for everyone who would like to visit and experience the “real bodega in Spain”.
Here’s a quick virtual tour.
The interiors are dark, like a real bodega, and take the visitors to 711 AD when wine distillation was discovered by the Moors. You will maps, old bottles, old shoes used to smash grapes, and an old way of preparing the brandy.
The story will take you slowly to the modern day when Grupo Emperador Spain acquired Bodegas Fundador, makers of the world’s first Spanish brandy.
The Brandy Museum is complete with books, tools, samples of soil used to grow grapes, and rare, old Emperador brandy bottles.
In the Brandy Museum, there is this Pot Still they use in fermentation and distillation of brandy, composed of head, heart, and tail.
There are audio-visual presentations that show the Bodegas Fundador vineyard and bodegas in Jerez, Spain, the process of creating oak wine barrels, and the cultivation and harvesting of grapes for viticulture (winemaking).
Visitors have also a dedicated space where they can learn more about brandy and join a brandy appreciation class and learn more about different brandy products from leading Spanish brandy-makers such as Bodegas Fundador, Bodegas San Bruno, Bodegas Terry, and Bodegas Garvey for a fee.
You can end the tour with drinks for those who want to get a taste of different cocktails and concoctions made from Emperador products.
There is also a small coffee shop that offers its brandy coffee. Here’s the menu and what we had.
Brandy Museum Hours
From Monday-Thursday, they are open from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM and for Friday-Sunday, it is 9:00 AM to 11:00 PM. But you have to come at least 40 minutes earlier than the closing time so you can fully enjoy what the museum has to show.
How to Get There
As mentioned, this is located inside Iloilo Business Park’s Festive Walk Parade. The most convenient place to drop by is across from MacDonald’s or you can also drop off at the Festive Terminal where you can walk a little going to the Brandy Museum.
Here is the list of possible jeepneys you can ride to conveniently reach the place:
ROUTE # 4 UNGKA-ILOILO CITY VIA DIVERSION FESTIVE WALK TRANSPORT HUB LOOP
ROUTE # 5 FESTIVE WALK TRANSPORT HUB ILOILO CITY PROPER VIA SM CITY
ROUTE # 12B MANDURRIAO – VIA FESTIVE WALK TRANSPORT HUB LOOP
ROUTE # 13A HIBAO-AN – ILOILO CITY PROPER VIA TABUCAN HUB
ROUTE # 20 VILLA -JARO VIA SOOC/OÑATE/FESTIVE WALK TRANSPORT HUB
ROUTE # 21 TAGBAK – FESTIVE WALK TRANSPORT HUB VIA SM CITY/ATRIA
ROUTE # 23 MOHON – MANDURRIAO BUSINESS DISTRICT
ROUTE # 24 LA PAZ – FESTIVE WALK TRANSPORT HUB VIA NABITASAN LOOP
