"Qiong pulp jade liquid is famous all over the world, and the wine aroma can't help but salivate." "Liquor Capital" Yibin is located in the 28 degrees north latitude of the golden wine belt, located in the core plate of China's liquor golden triangle, giving birth to China's top liquor represented by Wuliangye (000858), which has become synonymous with the highest quality of Chinese liquor and the highest craftsmanship of winemaking, and the secret of wuliangye's high quality is hidden in an old cellar pool.
The cellar code behind Wuliang Wine
The wine industry proverb "a thousand years old cellar is ten thousand years bad, and the wine is good all by the old cellar pool". Wuliangye adheres to the ancient brewing technology, with 59 Ming Dynasty ancient cellar ponds with more than 600 years of cellar age such as "Long Hair Sheng" and "Lichuan Yong", which is the only existing ming dynasty crypt-style qujiu fermentation cellar group in China's liquor industry, and the oldest of which can even be traced back to 1368.
After 653 years of uninterrupted maintenance and use, these ancient cellar ponds have been able to grow and reproduce stably in the unique natural environment of Jiudu, forming hundreds of beneficial cellar mud microbial communities. They take the waste as the source of nutrition, the cellar mud and the waste as the place of activity, and participate in the synthesis of the aromatic substances of the koji wine and the improvement of the materialization structure of the cellar mud. After a slow biological reaction, the compound "cellar aroma" ingredient with rich fragrance and long aftertaste was produced, and finally gave Wuliangye a unique style of "long aroma, mellow taste, luscious entrance, clean throat, harmonious taste, and just right".
Scientists believe that Wuliangye's ancient cellar mud is unique in China and even in the world, is the treasure of China's thousands of years of wine culture, has a high academic research value, and is a well-deserved "living national treasure". It is not only a precious witness to China's traditional winemaking technology, but also fills a gap in the collection of cultural relics in the National Museum of China - it is the only "living cultural relic" of the National Museum.
And for this precious national treasure -- "living cultural relics", since the 1960s, China's liquor researchers have begun to devote themselves to research, and in the study found that most of the reported cellar pond caproic acid bacteria are Closedtridium bacteria, most of which mainly produce butyric acid and indole, etc., but due to technical limitations, the types of caproic acid bacteria in the main body of the cellar mud have not yet been analyzed, in the end what is the main body of caproic acid bacteria in the cellar mud? What is its role in liquor brewing?
Science supports the mysteries of Wuliangye Fragrance World
In order to break through this problem, Wuliangye and The research group of Professor Xu Yan of Jiangnan University and other collaborative research, the main body of the cellar mud hexanoic acid bacteria in Sichuan, Jiangsu, Anhui and other major aromatic liquor producing areas in China carried out microbial ecology and comparative genomics analysis, after years of research and exploration, the research team finally made a major breakthrough in the ecology of the aromatic liquor cellar mud caproic acid bacteria, the research results "The ecological adaptability of caproic acid bacteria contributes to its dominant position in the anaerobic fermentation system" published in the international microbial authoritative academic journal " Applied and Environmental Microbiology (full text link: https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/AEM.01203-21).
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The study found that at the seed level, at least four different types of caproic acid bacteria were identified in the cellar mud, accounting for about 40% of the global reported caproic acid bacteria species; one of the four caproic acid bacteria, which has not yet been classified and named, is widely distributed and abundant in the cellar mud of different production areas, and is identified as the main caproic acid bacteria brewed by strong aromatic liquor, subverting the previous understanding that the main bacteria are Clostridium bacteria.
Based on this, the researchers used the optimized acid-producing bacteria culture and separation technology of the cellar mud to isolate a number of unnamed new species, of which a main caproic acid bacteria was isolated from the old cellar mud of Wuliangye brewing, named Caproicibacterium sp. JNU-WLY1368。 Comparative genomics analysis found that 1368 strain is the most extensive substrate utilization spectrum of caproic acid bacteria, which can use a variety of carbon sources such as starch, maltose, glucose and lactic acid, of which the simultaneous utilization of lactic acid and sugar plays an important role in the steady-state maintenance of the bacteria in the cellar mud.
Caproicibacterium sp. JNU-WLY1368 strain (top) scans electron microscopy micrographs; (bottom) acid-producing metabolic pathways
In this major breakthrough, the industry professional gave a high evaluation, that this study from the breadth and depth of the two dimensions of the analysis of the main caproac acid bacteria type of China's aromatic liquor brewing system, revealed the main flavor and aromatic substances of the microbial metabolism mystery of the aromatic liquor, answered the puzzle that has plagued China's liquor brewing industry for more than half a century about the type of caproic acid bacteria and its fermentation characteristics, expanded the scientific understanding of caproic acid bacteria, and unveiled the mystery of the formation mechanism of the aromatic aroma. It will effectively promote the scientific and technological progress and quality rate of aromatic liquor.
The 1368 strain, the latest scientific research result that uses the founding time of Wuliangye Ancient Cellar as the code name, further proves one of the mysteries of Wuliangye's fragrance through scientific means, because it uses the Ming Dynasty cellar pond after more than 600 years of vicissitudes and has not been interrupted fermentation. From this point of view, the significance of the existence of Wuliangye Ancient Cellar Pool is not only to brew a cup of fine wine, let people taste the taste of the years, they are also the precious gifts given to mankind by time and nature through the flow of years, which is the core competitiveness of the great country represented by Wuliangye.
"There was no cellar before Mingchi." Every drop of Wuliangye now has to be grateful to this "mother cellar" born in 1368 - she is like a selfless mother, who has been selflessly dedicating herself for more than 650 years and nourishing generations of Wuliangye people. "The cellar is the soul of wine", compared with any slogan, the ancient cellar can more perfectly reflect the craftsman spirit and unique value of Wuliangye, which is the "soul" of Wuliangye, and is also the treasure of Chinese liquor culture and the jewel in the crown.
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