Top 3 Wine Types in China

Chinese wine is also called rice wine. The main ingredient is rice or another grain. It is made by steaming the grain, then leaving it to make sugars and ferment, before finally filtering it under pressure.

The wine is mostly yellow in colour, and is clear and transparent, with no sediment. The alcohol content is fairly low, usually between 12-17%, and the acidity is between 0.3% and 0.5%.

The wine has nutritional and medical value as well as being good for use in cooking and it continues to be very popular in China.

1. Shaoxing Yellow Wine

The producers of Shaoxing Yellow Wine use only the best glutinous wine from the year's harvest and water from the Mirror Lake of Shaoxing. The production is limited to the winter months.

Into the yeast required for fermentation, they mix a kind of pungent knotgrass (polygonum flaccidum) and other rare herbs. The method includes both drenching the grain and spreading it out on a drying floor.

It is a semi-sec wine, orange in color and clear, and on the palate, it is smooth, mellow, and sweet. It is stored in earthenware jars, which are mud-sealed and cellar-ed, where the wine continues to mature.

It can be kept for a very long time indeed, and the longer the better.

This product is not only excellent for drinking but also a wonderful cooking ingredient. It is often used in Chinese medicinal recipes.

There are many kinds of Shaoxing Yellow Wine, the most familiar being Jiafan or "added rice" wine. Currently, Shaoxing Yellow Wine is sold in over twenty different countries and regions. The export volume exceeds that of other Chinese wines.

The origin of jiafan wine is given in a popular story. A kind-hearted master vintner often saw the children of poor families sneaking into the workshop and eating stolen glutinous rice from the grains which have been spread out to dry.

So at the " grain steeping" stage of production, he quietly added several extra measures of sticky rice. After a time the "added rice" custom became established, the wine produced by this method is a cut above previous wine.

Later this master vintner simply revealed the "added rice" method to everybody. It brought an improvement in production.

According to how much extra rice is added, this type of wine is divided into "normal added rice", "double added rice" and "special added rice".

Because of the extra ingredients, the wine is stronger, with a mellow and slightly sweet flavor, and its alcoholic content is 16%-17%. It is the most prized of the Shaoxing wines and is best served slightly warm.

Nv'er hong or "daughter red" derives from Jiafan wine. Because it is stored in wine jars engraved with flowers it is also called huadiao or "flower engraved" wine.

The tradition goes that long ago in Shaoxing there was a tailor whose family name was Zhang whose wife was expecting a baby.

The tailor, who longed to have a son, buried a jar of huadiao wine in his courtyard, planning to have a celebration party with his relatives and friends when his son was born.

But, as luck would have it, his wife gave birth to a baby girl, and the tailor was so disappointed that he forgot all about the buried wine.

In due course, his daughter grew up to be a beautiful young lady. She engaged with Zhang's favorite apprentice. On the wedding day, the tailor suddenly remembered the old wine that he had buried in his courtyard eighteen years before and retrieved it quickly.

When the huadiao wine was opened, its bouquet was overwhelming and its alcoholic effect was sensational. That is how Nv'er hong got its name.

2. Jimo Old Wine

Jimo is a very ancient county on the peninsula that has Qingdao at its tip. Jimo Old Wine was once called laojiu, meaning "rich and mellow wine".

The sources tell us that in the Warring States Period (403-221 BC) Jimo was a land of plenty, both populous and prosperous. Their mellow wine, being a drink for sacrificial rites as well as for socializing, was produced in large quantities.

Immortal Old Wine was praised by many rulers and emperors. During the Spring and Autumn Period (770-481 B.C.) when Duke Jing of Qi lived in Laoshan, he used it as a sacred offering to the immortal world.

It was consumed in large quantities by Emperor Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Han Wu, and Emperor Tang Xuan Zong, and is regarded as the jewel of Chinese wine.

Jimo Old Wine was praised by many rulers and emperors. During the Spring and Autumn Period (770-481 B.C.) when Duke Jing of Qi, lived in Laoshan, he used it as a sacred offering to the immortal world.

The First Emperor of Qin, Emperor Wu of the Han, and Xuanzong of the Tang all drank it in abundance. So it is known as the jewel of Chinese wines.

By the time of the Daoguang reign period of the Qing Dynasty (1821-50), it was available in all the commercial harbors of the empire. It was sold in Japan and the countries of Southeast Asia.

Jimo Old Wine is a semi-sweet wine. It is made from millet from the banks of the Moshui River, a wheat-based ferment, and mineral water from Laoshan.

Using an ancient method, the millet is broken down into a paste by stirring with a spoon over a medium fire and then filtered under pressure after saccharification and fermentation.

The color of the wine is dark brown with tints of reddish-purple. It is crystal clear and transparent, and viscous so that it clings to the side of the cup and does not easily spill. There is a distinct hint of scorched grain in its bouquet.

The alcoholic content is 11.5% and the acidity is less than 5%. It is considered to be nutritious and beneficial for health. The finest type is the well-known Lao Gan Zha.

3. Red Ferment Wine

Red ferment involves red mold growing on polished round rice. It is a specialty of the area around Gutian and Pingnan in Fujian province. The wine is made with high-quality white glutinous rice. The red ferment promotes saccharification and fermentation.

The winter solstice is the best time to start making this wine, and after it has fermented for 120 days at a low temperature and then pressed and filtered, blended, and pasteurized.

It is drawn off into jars where it is matured for one to three years. It is a sweet wine with an alcoholic content of 14.5%-17%.

Longyang Chen'gang wine from Fujian province has a long history and is the oldest wine of this type. Its production combines all the most highly skilled techniques of Chinese winemaking. It is made with high-quality glutinous rice and uses as many as four different ferments.

The process involves first mixing herbal ferment, a granular ferment, and a white ferment to make a sweet mash, then adding Gutian red ferment, and the technique includes adding rice liquor in two phases.

This produces a sweet wine with an alcohol content of 14%-16% and a sugar content of 22.5%-25%. Normally it should mature for three years before drinking.

The wine is clear and translucent and reddish-brown with a luster of amber. It has a fragrant nose and is sweet and mellow in the mouth.