Yellow wine, one of the three ancient wines in the world, and the only one of the three ancient wines that originated in China, is the "national essence" of our Chinese nation. There are many origins and genres of rice wine in China, and everyone must have heard of "Shaoxing yellow wine", so what is the relationship between Shaoxing wine and rice wine? What is the "daughter red" and "yuan red" often said in costume TV series?
First, rice wine = Shaoxing wine?
1. What does rice wine refer to?
It is often seen on TV dramas that a certain hero is a good man, and he drinks several large bowls in the restaurant, at this time we can't help but be full of admiration: really bold! This amount of wine is really good! Aren't modern people already drunk after a few drinks? But in fact, the "wine" in the ancient population is not the modern liquor (distilled liquor), but refers to rice wine, that is, grain brewing wine. Among them, "rice wine" refers to rice wine with a long brewing time and a darker color.
Rice wine is named after its yellow color, but not all rice wines are yellow, and there are also black and reddish categories. In a nutshell, rice wine is a brewed wine made from grains such as rice, millet, corn, and wheat, and the alcohol content is generally around 15%.
China is vast and rich in resources, and the raw materials and processes used to brew rice wine throughout the country are different, so many genres have been formed, such as Shaoxing rice wine is wheat yeast rice wine, Shandong Jimo old wine is yellow rice wine, Fujian Longyan sinking tank wine is red yeast rice wine, and so on.
2. Why is Shaoxing rice wine famous all over the world?
We are now talking about "Shaoxing yellow wine" refers to the general term for the yellow wine produced within the scope of Shaoxing.
Shaoxing is one of the producing areas of rice wine, and it is also the most famous rice wine category, with the reputation of "Chinese rice wine out of Shaoxing". In 1952, in the first national wine appraisal after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Shaoxing rice wine was rated as one of the "Eight Famous Wines in China" and was the only yellow wine among them.
The famous Qing Dynasty recipe work "Tuning Ding Ji" records Shaoxing yellow wine as follows:
"Like the wine in the world, there are many people with ashes, and the drinking makes people thirsty, and the shao wine is unique; the most people in the world are sweet, and the drinking makes the body full of stuffiness, and the nature of the shao wine is aromatic and mellow, and it is not kept when it goes, so the addict is the best product, not private evaluation."
"Sweet taste, clear color, aromatic aroma, and li alcohol, only Chen Shaoxing wine is the first."
It can be seen that as early as ancient times, Shaoxing wine was the best among rice wines.
Shaoxing's rice wine is so outstanding that it is inseparable from the unique environment. Shaoxing rice wine production area is mainly distributed in the waters of Jianhu Lake, the land is fertile, the climate is mild, the sunshine is sufficient, and the water source is rich and high-quality.
The reason why Shaoxing yellow wine is famous in the world is first of all because of the good water quality. Shaoxing rice wine brewing uses jianhu water, a total of 36 streams, from huiji mountain meandering into the lake, along the way through the layers of gravel rock filtering, so the water quality is clean and neutral, soft and hard, but also rich in trace elements.
In addition, the raw materials used in Shaoxing rice wine are also excellent. The refined white glutinous rice and yellow-skinned wheat used in winemaking are rigorously screened. Among them, glutinous rice must be the high-quality glutinous rice harvested in the same year, with high whiteness (fine whiteness refers to the grinding rate of rice, and the higher the fine whiteness, the greater the proportion of rice loss), and the particles are full. Yellow skin wheat must also be harvested in the same year, the skin is yellow and thin, the particles are full, the starch content is high, the impurities are small, the viscosity is good, and there is no mold to become the raw material of Shaoxing rice wine.
3. The color and aroma of Shaoxing rice wine
Most of Shaoxing rice wine is amber, clear and clear, and this color is mainly derived from the natural pigments in the raw materials.
Shaoxing rice wine is fragrant, this aroma comes from the raw material itself, the metabolism of various microorganisms during fermentation and the chemical reactions that occur in the wine during aging. Moreover, the older the Shaoxing yellow wine, the more fragrant it is, and Yuan Ming, the author of "Suiyuan Food List", once said that "Shaoxing wine is only five years old, and it should not be drunk."
The taste of Shaoxing rice wine is also very complex, which is composed of six flavors: sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, fresh and astringent.
Second, what are the main types of Shaoxing rice wine?
There are many ways to classify rice wine, shaoxing rice wine is most commonly based on the amount of residual sugar in the wine, that is, the sweetness of the wine to classify, from the driest to the sweetest is divided into 4 kinds: Yuan Hong, Rice, Good Brewing, Fragrant Snow.
1. Yuan Hong
Yuanhong is a dry rice wine, basically completely fermented, residual sugar content between 4-8g/L, clear color, refreshing taste, alcohol content of 16%-19%.
2. Add rice
Rice wine is a semi-dry rice wine, and the sugar content is generally 15-40g/L. "Rice", as the name suggests, refers to the proportion of raw materials in the proportion of water in the middle of the water is small, while the proportion of grains increases, the concentration is large, and the alcohol content of the wine produced is higher, reaching 17.5%-19.5%. The liquor is dark amber in color, yellow with red in the middle, and the taste is extremely mellow and sweet.
The famous "flower carving wine" is a kind of rice wine, and the main raw material is glutinous rice. Flower carving wine comes from the ancient wedding gift "female wine", it is recorded that the local family made wine after giving birth to a daughter, aged for several years, and then took out to feast guests when the daughter got married, which was for "daughter red".
Because of the festive paintings painted on the wine altar, people called this wine "flower carving", and slowly the flower carving became synonymous with the aged Shaoxing wine. Later, if you give birth to a boy, you can also make wine, hoping to open the altar when your son is in high school, so the flower carving is also called "Yuanhong".
Throughout the ages, flower carving wine has transcended the meaning of a single kind of wine, but a unique wine culture that integrates calligraphy, sculpture and art.
3. Good brewing
Shanjiu is a semi-sweet rice wine with a sugar content of 60-70g/L, which is a high-end category of Shaoxing rice wine. The liquor is dark yellow, has a strong texture, is aromatic, and the alcohol content is generally between 13.5% and 16.5%. In the fermentation process of good winemaking, 1-3 years of yuan red wine is often used instead of water to brew rice wine, so that the wine produced is called "mother and child wine", and the quality is higher.
4. Fragrant snow
Fragrant snow wine is a sweet rice wine, with a sugar content of 190-230g/L, and an alcohol content of 17.5%-19.5%. During the brewing process, the aged bad roast (a kind of white wine) is used instead of water, and the resulting wine is particularly rich and sweet.
3. How to drink Shaoxing rice wine?
1. Warm drink
Warm drinking rice wine is more common, especially in winter, and it is more suitable for warm drinking. Generally, the container for the wine is placed in hot water and heated to 60 to 70 degrees, at which time the aroma of the ester substances in the wine liquid escapes due to heating, making the wine more mellow.
Another heating method is direct insulation heating, but this method is not recommended, because it is difficult to control the temperature, it is easy to evaporate the alcohol due to the heating time is too long, and the wine becomes tasteless.
2. Chilled
In the hot summer, if the rice wine is warm, it is inevitable that it is irritable, and now more and more young people prefer iced yellow wine, or add a few ice cubes to the wine when drinking, just to slightly reduce the alcohol content and make it cooler.
For more fun, adding some plums or lemon to the chilled rice wine is also a delicious drink.
Fourth, in addition to direct drinking, shaoxing rice wine also has what other uses?
1. Accompany the meal
Rice wine can not only be drunk purely, but can also be served with meals like wine. Especially in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other regions, rice wine has entered thousands of households and has become an alcoholic beverage often seen on the wine table.
When it comes to the pairing of rice wine, everyone's first reaction is that it will be "hairy crab". Indeed, rice wine and hairy crab are recognized as the perfect match, in addition to the rice wine just mentioned to remove the fishy smell of crabs, the coldness of crabs and the warmth of rice wine are also complementary. However, not all rice wine is suitable for hairy crabs, only semi-dry rice wine is suitable, because too much sugar will mask the deliciousness of crabs, and if alcohol is too low, it is not suitable for removing the fishy smell of crabs.
Dry type of yuan red wine, should be accompanied by vegetables, jellyfish skin and other cold cuts; semi-sweet type of good wine, should be accompanied by chicken and duck; sweet type of fragrant snow wine, should be accompanied by beets.
2. Cooking
Rice wine in cooking has the effect of defishing, de-fating, flavoring, etc., the esters in rice wine can bring aroma to dishes, amino acids can increase umami, and alcohol can remove the fishy smell of fish, seafood and meat.
Almost every one of our cooking wines is made with rice wine as the base, with water and spices. To say that the fishy effect, usually with ordinary cooking wine is enough, but if the aroma increase effect, rice wine is better than cooking wine.
3. Health care
In addition to water and alcohol, the main ingredients of rice wine also contain 23 kinds of amino acids, of which 8 are essential but cannot be synthesized. Among the various brewed wines, rice wine has the highest content of these 8 amino acids.
Yellow wine also has a certain auxiliary medical effect, drinking warm yellow wine, can drive away cold and dampness, rheumatoid arthritis, bruises, back pain, hand and foot numbness has a certain help; drinking cold yellow wine, it has the effect of calming emotions and helping digestion.
Over the years Chinese has always more or less had a feeling of "the foreign moon is round after all", as if the imported wine must be better than the domestic one, and because often imported wine is relatively expensive due to tariffs and other reasons, and the domestic rice wine is priced close to the people, it is mistaken for thinking that domestic rice wine is a bargain that cannot be on the table.
In fact, to make a yellow wine, the severity of raw materials, the complexity of the process is not lost at all, and even more than that, the famous yellow wine brand Guyue Longshan, Tower Brand, Huijishan and so on are quite high quality, many of which are aged for more than ten years to decades of yellow wine, the quality is even more first-class.
As a Chinese, if you have not drunk authentic Shaoxing yellow wine a few times, I have to say that it is really a great regret in life!
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