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Gu Long said: "If a person wants to get drunk quickly, the best way is to drink wine with wine and dry it with yellow wine for nothing."

This sentence can be literally understood as: mixed drinking is easy to get drunk. But there is also a potential logic: yellow rice wine is used to "eat", not "be eaten".

It's like porridge with pickles, rice noodles with fried dough sticks and steamed bread with mutton soup. The main body of "Xia" is often the food with a loose taste and a light temperament, but it can't be the protagonist.

Yellow rice wine, of course.

No: 1 one

The debate about who is the national wine of China has never stopped for a hundred years, but the four, eight and ten famous China wines selected by various organizations are all white wines. Its status is as unshakable as Japanese sake, German stout, French brandy, British whisky and Russian vodka.

The yellow rice wine, which is really originated in China, has always followed the liquor like a shadow. Although it was labeled as elegant literature and art, honest and peaceful, it was not elegant after all.

Just like the old literati in China who are often used to decorate the facade or criticize the current disadvantages, they have never dominated the development process of history.

Many articles have pushed the origin of yellow rice wine to China two or three thousand years ago. From Du Kang, who solved his worries, to Gou Jian, a worker who devoted himself to mash, to Cao Mengde, who was a hero in cooking wine, to Li Bai, who wrote hundreds of poems about fighting wine, and to Su Shi, who asked the sky about wine, all belong to the category of yellow rice wine. This is actually extremely imprecise.

In the pedigree of western alcoholic beverages, the classification of Yellow wine is not "yellow wine", but "Rice wine". Generally speaking, distiller's yeast is used as the fermentation medium, and it is brewed with grain without distillation. And Tibetan highland barley wine and Japanese sake are close relatives.

However, in a long historical period, non-distilled rice wine has a major drawback: under the dual effects of saccharification and fermentation, starch will release a large number of suspended particles, which will make the wine turbid. In fact, before the Tang and Song Dynasties, there was no decent yellow rice wine in China, and people drank "turbid wine". In ancient poems, "a cup of turbid wine makes Wan Li home" and "a pot of turbid wine makes us happy to meet" are all about this.

As opposed to turbid wine, it is naturally sake. Although it is said that as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, China people invented the squeezing filtration method, but the real maturity of filtration technology was after the Tang and Song Dynasties. Li Bai's "How many years have you been a ranger in pure wine costs, for the golden cup, ten thousand coppers a flagon and Xianyang" may not be an exaggeration, but it is a true portrayal of the high cost of filtration technology in the early Tang Dynasty, and sake is not affordable for ordinary people.

No:2 er

A noteworthy detail is that at the same time as the rapid evolution of wine filtration technology, another great event happened: the Japanese envoy to the Tang Dynasty, represented by Anpei Zhongmalu, came to Chang 'an, the center of world civilization at that time.

Besides tea ceremony, flower path and chess path, there are also techniques for making koji, brewing turbid wine and filtering sake.

Although it is the same school, Japanese wine has since embarked on a completely different development track from Chinese wine because of the different national personalities: the Japanese have brought the "axis" and "dead brain", which can also be interpreted as "craftsman spirit", to the extreme, and through tireless filtering, they have obtained clear Japanese sake with no impurities. They also found that the protein content in the outer layer of rice grains was high, and the starch content in the inner layer was high. By grinding, the outer layer of rice grains was removed, and only the rice core was used as raw material, and the "Da Yin Niang" with a taste comparable to that of fruit wine was brewed.

In China, after the Yuan Dynasty, the distillation technology invented by Arabs was introduced to the Central Plains. Liquor, a kind of "sake" with high alcohol content and lower acquisition cost, became popular-yes, for China people who are skillful by nature, it is not convenient to distill it after repeated filtration.

But China culture is conservative and diverse. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, at the beginning of the invention of liquor, China people regarded it as "stinky liquor" only for the lower classes because of its high alcohol content. Scholars with status insist on drinking expensive filtered sake. By the early Qing Dynasty, there were two factions of filtered wine, the North and the South.

Beijiu takes millet as the main raw material and is produced in Beijing, Hebei, Shandong and Henan. Both Cang liquor and Yi liquor in Hebei belong to the typical filtered liquor of the North School, and there is a saying in the notes of scholars in the early Qing Dynasty that "Cang liquor is famous before Shao liquor". In addition, Taiyuan, Luzhou, Shanxi and Xiangling, Linfen all produce excellent yellow rice wine.

Nanjiu is mainly made of glutinous rice, which is produced in Fujian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, especially Shaoxing wine. Because of the high content of protein and starch in glutinous rice, during storage, the sugar and amino acids in the wine form Maillard reaction, which produces pigment and gives the wine a clear yellow color. This is a color that the Japanese who have worked hard to grind off the epidermis of rice grains will never brew.

Essentially, it is the same color as soy sauce.

This color is difficult to filter out, perhaps because of the psychological trouble of "almost good", China people kept this filtered wine with yellow color and passed it down.

No:3 San

During the prosperous period of Kanggan in the middle of Qing Dynasty, the national traffic developed greatly. South-North wine inevitably collides in narrow roads. In this game, Nanjiu with yellow defeated Beijiu with absolute advantage. The reason is not necessarily that the taste of southern wine is better than that of northern wine, but an important reason is that southern wine will not change its taste after being transported to the north; The northern wine is transported to the south, and it will deteriorate in the heat.

Therefore, people call the filtered wine in the south with long time, dark color and storage resistance "Shaoxing old wine".

For the golden color, winemakers also consciously add caramel to the production process. The name of Shaoxing yellow rice wine is beneficial.

By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the children of the Eight Banners had a special interest in Shaoxing wine with sweet taste, and the government ordered that there was a saying that "shochu was forbidden but yellow rice wine could not be stopped". During the Republic of China, yellow rice wine, as a kind of filtered wine brewed by glutinous rice and colored by caramel, was basically determined.

| Jimo, Shandong |

Jimo wine

Jimo old wine is one of the few representatives of northern yellow rice wine that has been passed down so far. This kind of yellow rice wine brewed with millet as the main material can maintain an independent posture among many southern yellow rice wines, which is almost an isolated case.

In addition to the good quality of Jimo old wine itself, the more important reason may be the strength of Shandong cuisine since the middle of Qing Dynasty. Whether it is used as a seasoning in cooking or a fun drink at the dinner table, local yellow rice wine has a strong existence significance.

Today, in the north dominated by liquor, Jimo old wine is more regarded as a health drink. Shandong people use it to make eggs, brown sugar, black dates, walnuts and even carp stew. The so-called efficacy is really secondary, but the taste is very special.

| Anyang, Henan |

Double-headed rice wine

The so-called "double-headed" refers to millet and millet, both of which are the main ingredients, regardless of the front and back. It is a typical Zhongyuan yellow rice wine.

This compound grain wine is quite like Wuliangye. In fact, in Henan, double-headed wine is really regarded as Wuliangye in yellow rice wine.

What's even more amazing is that honey and raw eggs are added in the brewing process of double-headed yellow rice wine, and the added sweet flavor is really exquisite. Although since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, frequent yellow flooding has made the quaint Central Plains culture retrogress step by step. However, in the details of wine making, we can still see the shadow of the legacy of the Tang and Song Dynasties.

| Jiujiang, Jiangxi |

Sealed rice wine

In Jiangxi, yellow wine brewing has been a typical southern wine technology. Glutinous rice is the main ingredient, mixed with a little millet, just to make the taste more compound.

The so-called sealed cylinder refers to sealed fermentation and sealed clarification brewing, which must be sealed twice before and after, and the time is as long as five years.

Yellow rice wine is different from white wine, because its alcohol content is low, so it is not better with aging, and it may be rancid if it is left for too long. Therefore, the concept of "aged yellow rice wine" not only refers to the long brewing time, but also is directly related to the purity of yellow rice wine quality: without such purity, it is impossible to become aged wine.

| Xiangyang, Hubei |

Xiangyang ricewine

Xiangyang people's love for yellow wine is probably not lower than Shaoxing people's. Three local specialties can be included in the yellow rice wine pedigree: Xiangyang yellow rice wine, Danhe thick wine and Difeng yellow rice wine.

The latter two are not much different from the yellow rice wine in Wuyu area, and Xiangyang yellow rice wine is worth mentioning. Although it is called "yellow rice wine", it is actually not a narrow sense of yellow rice wine, but an ancient turbid wine.

Because it has not been squeezed and filtered, the wine is milky white and tastes sweet and sour. It is said that this wine was invented by Huang Yueying, the wife of Zhuge Liang, and it is also called "Maoluchun". Although most of them are legends attached to the guild, the invention of turbid wine can indeed be traced back to the Han and Three Kingdoms.

| Chenzhou, Hunan |

Inverted rice wine

Hunan wine does not take yellow rice wine as the mainstream, but Jiahe County, Chenzhou, produces a distinctive inverted wine.

Besides glutinous rice and distiller's grains, shochu should be poured in the brewing process to improve alcohol content and flavor. Hence the name "inverted cylinder". Although the process is rough, it tastes mellow and sweet, which is different from the flavor of orthodox Nanjiu.

Xiao Ke, a native of Jiahe, has a special liking for inverted wine in his hometown. He said, "Water is sweet in my hometown, and wine is good to pour." A sweet word and a good word tell how many wanderers are homesick.

| Wuxi, Jiangsu |

Hui Quan yellow rice wine

The authenticity of yellow rice wine is, of course, in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Wu dialect areas. Shaoxing is the first wine in Zhejiang, while Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou and Shanghai in Jiangsu all have good wines: Shazhou Youhuang in Zhangjiagang, Taoyuan yellow wine in Wujiang, Shikumen old wine in Shanghai, Baipu yellow wine in Nantong and so on. But when it comes to historical accumulation, I'm afraid Wuxi Hui Quan wine is better.

After Lu Yu named Wuxi Huishan Spring "the second spring in the world", Huishan became famous. It happens that water is the most important raw material for making yellow rice wine besides koji and grain. Since the Yuan Dynasty, people have been making wine here with the gimmick of "the second spring in the world". The technology is improved year by year, and naturally a good taste is brewed.

Cao Xueqin's father, Jiangning, weaved Cao Fu, and one of the tribute items to the emperor was "Spring Wine", which should be today's Hui Quan yellow rice wine. It can be seen that in the middle of Qing Dynasty, the quality of Hui Quan wine had reached the level of tribute. Cao Xueqin conveniently wrote it into A Dream of Red Mansions.

| Shaoxing, Zhejiang |

Daughter wine

Overseas, Shaoxing wine has almost become synonymous with yellow rice wine. Daughter red is another name for good Shaoxing wine. As a matter of fact, Daughter Red and Rice Wine are the common names of people for the well-brewed carved wine.

In fact, the success of Shaoxing wine is not due to the excellent selection of raw materials or the superb technological level. Instead, it first introduced a systematic standard similar to western wine evaluation in wine classification. According to the different sugar content, Shaoxing wine can be divided into Yuan red wine (dry wine), rice wine (semi-dry wine), good wine (semi-sweet wine), fragrant snow wine (sweet wine) and improved Taidiao wine (mixed wine) blended with good wine and fragrant snow.

This scientific and advanced wine classification has made Shaoxing wine stand out from the crowd in China yellow rice wine, and also enabled people with different tastes to find their favorite one in Shaoxing wine.

Chiang Kai-shek is a native of Zhejiang. It is said that after he went to Taiwan Province, he missed Shaoxing wine in his hometown very much. However, the water quality and temperature in Taiwan Province are completely different from those in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the yellow rice wine brewed has a strange sour taste. Therefore, Taiwan Province people invented the method of adding shredded ginger and preserved plum to yellow rice wine. After the reform and opening up, it was sent back to the mainland, which became a popular practice in the southeast coast.

In fact, high-quality Shaoxing handmade yellow rice wine is not only rich in umami flavor, but also has the aroma of wheat and lotus leaves, which is not suitable for heating and is more suitable for cold drinks. It is best to put the wine bottle in an ice bucket for a period of time before drinking, and it is suitable for drinking at around 6 degrees Celsius. Because its flavor component lipids can only be produced by yeast fermentation at low temperature for a long time, it is also necessary to activate its cool taste at low temperature.

| Meizhou, Guangdong |

hakka mother liquor

Yellow rice wine is widely distributed in Hakka settlements, and it is produced in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, Huizhou, Guangdong and Longyan, Fujian. But only in Meizhou, yellow rice wine is called "Niang wine".

The reason is related to the peculiar contradictory status of Hakka women. On the one hand, Hakka ancestors deeply experienced the importance of a prosperous population from the hard life of moving to cultivate land. No matter how to resist foreign invasion or develop production at home, having more people is an advantage. Therefore, "Niang wine" has the potential significance of praising women's brewing skills and women's leading national diet.

On the other hand, the traditional patriarchal ideology in southern society discriminates against women. Women keep the house and make wine, and men are the real masters of the family.