Chinese rice wine, which has a history of thousands of years, is not as simple as you think!

The best wine, the secrets in the jar

With that mellow fragrance, floating with that mysterious

Chinese rice wine in the turbulent history

Leaving his footprints everywhere

In this issue, we will take you closer

One of mankind's oldest wines

Yellow wine

Huangjiu is the oldest type of wine in China and a valuable material cultural heritage, and is known as the quintessence of the country.

The history of yellow wine is far older than that of white wine. Through the analysis of pottery unearthed from the Jiahu site in Wuyang County, Henan Province, it was found that wine made from rice was already available 9,000 years ago (in the Neolithic era). The origin of yellow wine comes from grain winemaking, which uses the bilateral fermentation method. This research shows the root of the origin of Chinese winemaking materials.

It can be said that the development of Chinese yellow wine from early rice wine to mature yellow wine has lasted for thousands of years. Grain fermented wine before the Tang Dynasty cannot be called yellow wine, because the grain wine at that time was still at a low level and far from reaching the quality of modern yellow wine.

During the Northern Wei Dynasty, the book Qi Min Yao Shu recorded 12 different kinds of koji and more than 20 kinds of wine brewing methods. For example, the book divided koji into two types: Ben koji, Shen koji, and Bai Lao koji, and proposed the concept of "five-color clothing" for koji, which can be used to understand the fermentation status of microorganisms by observing the different colors of koji: black, white, yellow, and green.

The Tang and Song dynasties were a period of real technological change for Chinese wine, and rice wine was developed during this period. The two techniques of decocting wine and pressing wine appeared in the Tang Dynasty, making the flavor of the wine a hundred times better than that of the previous dynasties.

Finally, during the Yuan Dynasty, the brewing of Chinese fermented wine basically got rid of the problem of turbid wine and entered the stage of yellow wine. The wine is yellow or red, or reddish yellow or brownish yellow. This is because during the brewing and storage process, the sugar in the wine reacts with amino acids to form such a color. The development of yellow wine has reached its peak during this period.

Nowadays, rice wine is divided into northern and southern schools. The northern school is represented by Shanxi Daixian rice wine and Shandong Jimo rice wine. It is usually brewed with millet (also called rhubarb rice), with rich sweet rice wine as the backbone, dark color, heavy taste and thick body.

Southern-style rice wine is represented by Shaoxing rice wine, Shimenku rice wine and Hakka Niangjiu. The raw material for brewing is generally glutinous rice. The highlight is the refreshing dry type of rice wine, which emphasizes light color, mellow taste and fine body.

The process of making rice wine is complex and delicate, but generally speaking, it is divided into nine steps: soaking rice, steaming rice, mixing koji, brewing, raking, brewing, pressing, boiling, and jar filling. Almost every step is to make the fermentation more perfect.

The rice mixed with koji is brewed in a large vat. At this time, microorganisms begin to cause it to undergo wonderful changes, which is also the key to producing fine wine.

At low temperatures, the microorganisms are not active, but the fermentation is almost perfect. Once the temperature is higher, the yeast will autolyze and release components that are not conducive to winemaking.

Next, we will briefly introduce the three key points of brewing: raw materials, raking, and time.

The main raw material for brewing rice wine is rice.

The rice family is very large. White rice, glutinous rice, black rice, germ rice, brown rice, glutinous rice, japonica rice, indica rice, sushi rice, basmati rice, etc. are all the same species.

When nearly 100% of the starch in the grains is amylopectin, the rice is called glutinous rice. This amylopectin is the reason why glutinous rice sticks to your teeth.

Botanically, rice can be divided into two subspecies, indica and japonica. The main basis for classification is that indica rice has long grains and japonica rice has short grains.

Generally speaking, japonica rice is grown in areas farther north than indica rice, is more dry, and has a higher viscosity. Compared to glutinous rice, the amylopectin content of indica rice and japonica rice is only 80% and 85% respectively.

Amylopectin has many branches, absorbs water quickly and is not easy to gelatinize. The brewed wine contains many water-soluble ingredients and has a mellow taste. Therefore, glutinous rice is the best choice for making rice wine.

Of course, the brewing of rice wine is inseparable from the saccharification and fermentation of koji, which can be divided into small koji, wine koji and red koji. Different koji have different production methods, thus brewing rice wine with different characteristics in different regions.

Raking refers to the stirring and cooling during fermentation. Its function is to regulate the fermentation temperature and add fresh air to facilitate the growth and reproduction of yeast.

Those who master the technique of fermentation are called "wine masters". When fermenting, they use four methods: listening, smelling, tasting and touching to distinguish the maturity of fermentation.

Experienced "wine brains" are sometimes more sensitive than any modern instruments. Therefore, even today when science and technology can control almost everything, many wineries still rely on manual labor to do this step.

For every wine expert, the accumulation of hearing, touch and other experiences only happens once a year. If you miss it, you have to wait another year. In addition, the temperature and raw materials are different every year. Without decades of slow work, you can never brew a good wine, nor become a good winemaker.

time

The life of newly brewed rice wine is far from over. It is still jogging with time, slowly accumulating, growing and changing.

As time goes by, the alcohol content of rice wine decreases slowly, while the ester aroma increases little by little. This reaction can only be carried out in a natural state, not by high temperature and high pressure.

As time goes by, the rice wine that has been infused with time will gradually turn into a charming light yellow color, and become more and more fragrant, reaching perfection day by day, and finally becoming the best product.

Rice wine is the art of jogging with time. Beyond being slightly tipsy, it grows slowly in the gaps of time, from the prime of youth to the most beautiful woman in the world. It requires every bit of beauty to accumulate into a glass of fine wine.

Source: Chongqing Jiulongpo District Cultural Relics Management Office

Audit expert: Tian Junying

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