Some historical facts about the birth time of the first bottle of dry white in China

When was the first bottle of dry white in China born? In recent years, there have been a variety of statements, some articles say, "In 1976, the original Shacheng Distillery developed China's first bottle of dry white wine"; some articles said, "In 1978, the Great Wall Longan dry white wine was successfully developed and put into mass production, becoming the first bottle of dry white independently brewed in China, filling the gap in China's wine industry"; and some articles said, "In 1979, China's first bottle of dry white wine came out in Huailai, marking the birth of China's dry wine"...

In 1939, Zhangyu Company's "Instructions for Agents and Customers" had already appeared dry white wine

A tribute should be paid to the predecessors who made these dry white wines. However, if people today have to assume that China's first bottle of dry white was born in 1976 or 1978 or 1979, I am afraid it is debatable. To be precise, these dry whites can be called "the first bottle of dry white in Shacheng" or "the first bottle of dry white in Huailai"; with a larger tone, it may also be called "the first bottle of dry white in Hebei", but it is definitely not "China's first bottle of dry white"! Because at least in 1939, China has documented domestic dry white wines.

In the "Instructions for Agents and Customers" issued by Yantai Zhangyu Grape Wine Company in 1939, Riesling white wine and Baina red wine are clearly classified as "dry wine"; the section "How to Drink" also proposes that "it is best to drink some dry wines during meals, such as Xie Baina and Riesling, which is called accompanied by table wine, which can make the dishes more fragrant.". In 1939, the second issue of the "Brewing Magazine" published the "Analysis of Zhangyu Wine and the Comparison of Wines in Various Countries" written by Sun Wei, the theme of Zhangyu Company's laboratory, and the "Zhangyu Red and White Wine Composition Table" showed that the sugar of Riesling white wine was divided into 0.111 grams / 100 cm, which was converted into 1.11g/L in today's general unit. According to the current national standard for wine (GB/T 15037-2006), the dry wine standard of "sugar content less than or equal to 4.0g/L" is a standard dry white.

In 1959, the third part of the Hong Kong Economic Yearbook, "Mainland Business Reference", edited and issued by the Hong Kong Ta Kung Pao, mentioned that Zhangyu's export products included "dry wine, that is, sugar-free wine, such as Xie baina red dry wine and Riesling white dry wine". The so-called "red dry wine", "white dry wine", that is, "dry red wine", "dry white wine" is another name, sometimes also called "red raisin wine", "white raisin wine".

The 1963 "Yantai Zhangyu Winemaking Company Famous Brand Product Data Survey" kept by the Yantai Municipal Archives records: "Our company has five kinds of famous wines, namely Gold Award Brandy, Red Rose Wine, McMes Wine, White Rose Wine, and Venus Brandy. In addition, there are two kinds of Riesling white raisin wine and Xie Baina red raisin wine, which are not used to domestic and are often named by foreign countries. That is to say, the Riesling dry white and the Baina dry red produced by Zhangyu Company at that time were more popular abroad than at home, and reached the popularity of "foreign countries often named to ask".

In 1965, the "Wine Technology" published by the Light Industry Press has two chapters, "Dry White Wine Production Process" and "Dry Red Wine Production Process", the first author of the book Zhu Mei was a winemaker in Zhangyu Company, "Dry White Wine Production Process" has a total of 22 pages (the folio is 16 open), including "Dry and White Wine Process", "Sorting, Crushing and Pressing", "White Grape Juice Pretreatment", "White Grape Juice Fermentation", "The First Barrel Change and Aging" and other contents, and equipped with a number of schematic diagrams and charts. The sixth chapter of the third part of the book, "Wine Sensory Inspection", also put forward the order principle of wine tasting as "first white and then red, first dry and then sweet, first light and then thick, first new and then old, first low and then high"; and even proposed that the drinkable temperature of dry white wine is 10 ~ 11 ° C, and the suitable drinking temperature of dry red wine is 16 ~ 18 ° C.

In December 1974, the "National Wine and Wine Grape Variety Research and Technical Cooperation Meeting" was held in Yantai, according to the minutes of the meeting, the meeting organized a visit to Yantai Grape Wine Company (the name of Zhangyu Company was changed to "Yantai Grape Wine Company" in 1966) and its raw material base, and tasted 56 kinds of excellent wine grape varieties from all over the world, including "dry white and sweet white wines made of Grisby, Riesling and white wings". The "Interim Measures for the Administration of Wine (Preliminary Draft)" agreed upon at the meeting has made clear provisions on the physical and chemical indicators of "dry wine", "semi-dry wine", "semi-sweet wine" and "sweet wine".

In 1976, the first issue of the magazine "Food and Fermentation Industry" published the "Overview of the Progress of the Fermentation Industry", which recorded: "According to the situation of the 1975 Guangzhou Spring Fair (Spring Canton Fair), the dry, sweet, white and red wines of Yantai Grape Winemaking Company (restored to the original name of "Zhangyu Grape Winemaking Company" in 1982) are very popular with foreign investors, and they can be sold as much as they can export." The article also wrote: "At present, the largest consumption in the international market is dry red and dry white wine."

In summary, the birth time of "China's first bottle of dry white" is much earlier than 1976, not later than 1939, and even can be traced back to 1915 Zhangyu Company won the gold medal Riesling white wine at the Panama Pacific World Exposition (San Francisco World Expo), because according to the "Panama Pacific World Exposition Production Classification Outline" compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce to prepare the Panama Games Bureau, the Riesling white wine exhibited by Zhangyu Company can only be classified as the 129th "Wine and Brandy" The category below the 632nd category is "white dry wine".

It should be emphasized that the "dry" and "sweet" of wine are just different types and tastes, not the drier and better, nor the drier and more expensive, nor the drier and more difficult to brew. (Chen Yaoming)