Recently, I accidentally watched a food documentary called "Taste of Hometown", the star introduced the wine and food terroir of the hometown, and shaoxing was mentioned in the first issue. Thinking about it, it was cold, but a warm cup of yellow warmed up the body.
Pictured: From the Internet, the official poster of "Taste hometown"
Talking about yellow wine is inseparable from Shaoxing.
Whether it is Li Bai's "jade bowl full of amber light", or Lanting's "Qushui Flowing", or to the lingering in "Dream of the Red Chamber", the history of rice wine has a long history, nourishing countless Chinese sons and daughters on this land, and occupying a strong and colorful stroke in Chinese culture.
Figure: From the network
Glutinous rice yellow wine in the south, huangmi yellow wine in the north, rice yellow wine in Shandong, Hubei and other places, and red yeast yellow wine in Fujian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang are all unique terroirs, but the best of them are also most famous for Shaoxing yellow wine.
There is such a passage in the "Tuning Ding Collection" that mentions Shaoxing wine: "Like the wine in the world, there are many people with ash, and the drinking is thirsty, and the wine in the world is unique; the wine in the world is mostly sweet, and the drinking makes the body full of stuffiness, and the nature of the wine is aromatic and mellow, and it is not kept, so the addict is the best product, not private evaluation." Shaoxing wine has a sweet taste, clear color, aroma and alcohol, which is actually a good wine.
Wine is named after Shaoxing, and Shaoxing is passed on because of wine.
The Shaoxing people, who live in the "hometown of yellow wine", grew up soaking in rice wine jars. From an early age, they were familiar with the everyday scene: the fathers sat at a table full of home-cooked dishes and poured amber rice wine into the bowl, the aroma of which had already spread when the lid was opened. They took a sip of rice wine, sandwiched a small dish, and slowed down. One small sip after another, the wine bowl reached the bottom, and the fathers had a flush on their faces.
Wu Nong soft language, the wu tent boat swaying, Shaoxing yellow wine with the ripples of the water, in this long river of history slightly drunk for a thousand years.
01
What is Shaoxing rice wine?
Only when there are good mountains and good water can good wine be passed down to the world. Shaoxing can be called the "hometown of yellow wine", and the address style has its own unique features.
Liang Zhangju, a Qing dynasty, once said, "Between the mountains and the mountains, the water is the most suitable for wine, and the change of land cannot be good, so there are Shaoxing people in other provinces such as the legal system, and the water is different, and the taste is far inferior." The good of Shaoxing yellow wine is the use of clear and mineral-rich water running down from the Huiji Mountains, which naturally occupies the geographical trend of mountains and rivers.
Pictured: From "Authentic Wind Objects". The central wine storehouse of Longshan in Shaoxing Ancient Yue contains about 11 million altars of original wine, weighing 260,000 tons. Photography / Cai Min
The day after tomorrow, after several generations of Shaoxing people's ultimate pursuit of winemaking technology, they have long mastered the mystery of rice wine - conforming to the chronological order, summer wine mother, autumn making wine songs, lidong brewing, opening spring early squeezing.
With the four important elements of heaven and time, earth gas, material beauty and craftsmanship, it pays attention to "heaven and man co-brewing" according to the seasons, so as to brew a wine with sweet, sour, bitter and fresh five flavors, and achieve the reputation of Shaoxing yellow wine on the altar.
Shaoxing yellow wine is amber, clear and clear, transparent as a mirror, smooth as silk. Just like the poet's "amber moonlight".
The impression of Shaoxing yellow wine is mild in nature, fragrant in taste, and gentle in taste like the tenderness of Jiangnan. In fact, it can be subdivided into four categories according to sweetness (low to high sugar content), namely Yuan Hong, Jia Rice, Good Brewing, and Fragrant Snow, each of which has a different flavor.
★ Yuan Hong: Named after the scarlet paint paint on the outside of the altar wall of the old fashion wine. The liquor is orange and yellow, transparent and shiny, the wine rice is completely fermented, and the residual sugar is less refreshing and slightly bitter. Suitable for cold cuts such as vegetables, seafood shrimp, crab dishes and jellyfish skin.
★ Rice: At the beginning of the brewing of rice wine, it should be made into yuanhong, and then additional ingredients should be fermented for the second time, so it is called "rice wine". Good quality and good flavor, bitter and spicy, fresh, sour and sweet six flavors fusion, mellow and fragrant, long-term storage of alcohol. It is the top quality of Shaoxing wine. It is suitable for meat, hairy crab and other strong dishes.
★ Good brewing: When the good wine is fermented, it is no longer added to the water, but replaced by a three-year-old yuan red wine, because the wine is used to make the wine again, so it is called "good wine". The orange-yellow (maroon red) of the wine is translucent, the taste is sweet and thick, and the flavor is fragrant. It can be combined with meat and vegetables, especially chicken and duck white meat.
★ Xiangxue: Distilled into 45 degrees of "bad roast" spirits with rice distilled lees to replace Yuan Hong as brewing water, because the wine is as white as snow, the bad aroma is pleasant, and it is named. Sweet and mellow, it can be paired with beet dishes.
Rice wine has great uses. Into the dish, the "bad" and "drunk" cooking techniques of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang schools are well-known; into medicine, it has also been recorded in the "Compendium of Materia Medica", qi through the blood veins, thick stomach, cold and so on.
Truly versatile, warm drinks and cold drinks are suitable, drinks slightly drunk, the wine rhymes mildly, and the light and slow drunk. Drinking rice wine is not heavy and heavy, and only takes the balance of sweet and sour, bitter and spicy tastes, and the interest falls on the mood. Now that the snow is falling, you can warm a pot of rice wine and enjoy the fun of the winter hearth.
02
Food and wine do not separate families, and good wine makes good food
The eating habits of the Shaoxing people have been inherited for thousands of years and have obvious customs of crossing the land. The "Chronicle of History and Cargo Breeding" has a record: "The land of Chuyue, rice soup fish..." Mostly freshwater fish and shrimp, river fresh and poultry, local vegetables as the main ingredients for cooking, pay attention to crisp and sticky, juice is strong, and often used fresh ingredients with pickled food steamed and stewed, with Shaoxing yellow wine, mellow and sweet, endless aftertaste...
However, in this ancient city full of wine, in addition to drinking rice wine, people have many "eating old wine" behaviors. Shaoxing cuisine in all kinds of drunken dishes are the most hungry, from the Northern Wei "Dream Liang Record" recorded to be bad food, to the Qing Dynasty Yuan Mu's "Suiyuan Food List" for drunken food detailed records, drunken shrimp, drunken crabs, drunken chickens, drunken clams... The aroma of the wine and meat in the house when the can is opened is mouth-watering.
Figure: From the network. Drunken shrimp.
In general, drunken delicacies are marinated in a sauce blended with soy sauce and rice wine. This treatment not only preserves the aroma of rice wine, but also highlights the sweet taste of the food itself under the action of wine.
A perfect pot of raw drunken crab is a romantic taste of rice wine and crabs. Buy the crab in water overnight, let it spit out the white foam of mud and sand, wash it clean, and start the marinating process. Take the crab into the wine and choke, wait until the live crab gradually gets drunk, and then pour in the marinated flower carving juice to seal the jar and marinate overnight.
The best drunken crab, the crab yellow has turned into a seductive golden yellow in the pickle, and the flesh of its flesh has become transparent and delicate, and the entrance is extremely fresh and mixed with a hint of sweetness.
Figure: Source network. Drunken crab.
In Shaoxing, rice wine itself can be "drunk" outside the dish, and even the lees can be eaten. The lees can remove the grease and put it into the wine, making the food more delicious.
Guyue bad chicken is one of the representatives of Shaoxing's "bad" food. It is made of Shaoxing's local Yue chicken and the best fragrant rotten as the main raw materials, and is refined by white boiling, pickling, drunkenness and other processes. There is a clear fragrance of wine but no wine domineering, bad has been brine into the bone, chicken is delicate and elegant, the entrance is full of charm, and the aftertaste is long.
Figure: From the network. Ancient worse chicken.
In addition to the dominance of rice wine in the cuisine industry, it also occupies a place in the shaoxing dessert industry. Yellow wine sticks with bare sticks, yellow wine milk tea that is sucked up, yellow wine pudding that is silky enough, rice wine nougat that loves to stick people, etc. There is only the unthinkable, and there is no rice wine that cannot be integrated.
Figure: From the network. Left, rice wine pudding; right, rice wine popsicle
Some people say that after visiting Shaoxing, they know that the people there live a tasteful life. Mi took a sip of rice wine, ate an ouzo bean, a drunken crab, ate a table of Shaoxing fireworks, simple but romantic, even if there is time to worry about life.
03
The thousand-year-old relationship between Shaoxing and rice wine
An ancient city is permeated with the aroma of wine in the folds of time, and behind it is the humanistic history.
The history of Shaoxing's association with wine can be traced back to more than 2500 years ago. There is a book "Lü Shi Chunqiu Shunmin" recorded: "The Yue King's bitterness will be the shame of the ... There is sweet and fertile, not enough, and there is courage to eat; there is wine, and there is a river of flow, and it is with the people. History is called "Mash Laborer". The Jiataihui Chronicle is more detailed: "Gouge ... On the day of the division's journey, there are pots of pulp, kneeling to receive it, covering the water, soldiers and soldiers carrying liquid and drinking it, people are brave, and there is Wu Guoye in a war.
Sinking in the river with the wine of the offering, there was a bit of determination to break the cauldron and sink the boat, and morale soared, leaving behind the historical story of "three thousand Yuejia can swallow Wu". At this time, Shaoxing's wine seemed to have a little more arrogance and chivalry.
Figure: From the network. Map of the wine jar in the Shaoxing Rice Wine Museum.
In the fifth year of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Huiji Taishou Mazhen mobilized the people to build a "Jian Lake" around the embankment, and gathered the thirty-six mountain springs of Jishan in the lake, laying the foundation for the excellent quality of Shaoxing rice wine in one fell swoop.
In the Wei and Jin dynasties, Shaoxing celebrities gathered, and the style of drinking was prevalent. In the ninth year of Yonghe, Wang Xizhi and the famous scholar Xie An held a grand ceremony of "Qushui Liuyan" in The Lanting pavilion of Huijishan Mountain, and wrote down the ancient treasure "Orchid Pavilion Collection" on the basis of wine, which became a shining page in the history of Shaoxing wine. In the "one look and one chant", the book Saint Wang Xizhi said that "it is enough to tell the story of humor".
Figure: From the network. Yonghe's nine years of flowing Qushui left behind the ancient treasure "Lanting Collection".
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the rice wine produced in Shaoxing has been listed as a tribute. In the Tang and Song dynasties, Shaoxing became a world-famous "wine country".
During the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, Shaoxing's winemaking industry showed a rapid development trend, and Kangxi's "Huiji County Chronicle" had the saying that "more wine traveled the world". And in the Qing Dynasty Yuan Ming's "Suiyuan Food List", he praised: "Shaoxing is moving in the sea today, and the wine is clear, the wine is strong, and the sichuan wine is fresh, is it under Shaoxing?"
The city of Shaoxing has been full of ups and downs for thousands of years, and all the accumulation is like a long-lasting aging, with the chivalry of the land, the elegance of the inker, and the tenderness of Jiangnan.
One side feeds the other. The water and soil of Shaoxing have bred a warm and gentle yellow wine, and the rice wine has nourished generations of Shaoxing people. A cup of yellow wine is strong and soft, everyone who likes to chew fennel beans, eat bad goods, and take a sip of old wine Shaoxing people, all have the bones of Jiangnan, the soul of yellow wine, and the gentle and introverted hidden in all the sharp edges.
Figure: From the network.
Shaoxing yellow wine, like a mellow and long song, it reverberates in every stream, every bluestone slab, every street corner in the old city of Shaoxing...
As the black tent boat swung its oars in the river, the ripples spread out the white walls on both sides of the river, and the aroma of wine flowed down the river, wafting for thousands of miles, moisturizing thousands of homes.