Chinese liquor culture has a long history and is profound (finally to the last article of the "Baijiu Map" series... ）。
Continue the first 3 articles.
Originally, I planned to write only niche liquor in this article, but after writing, I found that writing niche scents is inseparable from mentioning the three mainstream scents, so I simply made the last article a summary of liquor. In this way, this article becomes a large collection, the topic is very large, and the difficulty of writing is the highest. (Mainly because Okawa's personal knowledge reserves are limited, and he has not drunk enough wine)
The previous three articles have roughly talked about the three mainstream fragrance types, so although this article is a summary, the content is mainly focused on niche fragrances.
Let's start with the origin of the liquor aroma.
Before 1965, There was no clear division of liquor in China, which caused the liquor with strong aroma, full body and sweet after drinking at the first two appraisal meetings to take advantage, while liquor with weaker aroma and lighter taste scored lower, which could not reflect the true characteristics of various liquors (in terms of aroma, strong liquor is too domineering). Therefore, at the third rating meeting, it was proposed for the first time that the liquor should be divided according to the aroma type, and the manufacturers in the following two wine appraisal meetings were registered according to the aroma type.
It should be noted here that the concept of aroma type did not appear at this wine appraisal meeting, but since 1965, the relevant departments have begun to study the classification of liquor aromas.
Speaking of this, we need to mention a person, Ji Keliang, who was a technician at Moutai Distillery at the time (one of the titans of the liquor industry, the god-level figure of Moutai Distillery, if you are interested in liquor culture or Moutai liquor, please remember this person, I have mentioned it many times in the article). It was the team he led who summed up and proposed the characteristics of liquor at the first national liquor technical cooperation meeting, opening up the era of liquor division according to aroma type (to put it bluntly, it is because the sauce wine alone relies on the aroma evaluation standard in the first two appraisals and the strong liquor to suffer losses).
In the history of China's liquor, from 1952 to 1989, there were five national-level wine appraisal meetings organized by the Ministry of Light Industry.
The first national wine appraisal meeting was held in Beijing in 1952;
The 2nd National Wine Appraisal Was Held in Beijing in 1963;
The 3rd National Wine Appraisal Was Held in Dalian, Liaoning Province in 1979;
The 4th National Wine Appraisal Conference was held in Taiyuan, Shanxi in 1984;
The 5th National Wine Appraisal Conference was held in Hefei, Anhui Province in 1989;
The specific awards are as follows:
In the list, the three basic aroma types of thick, sauce and Qing still occupy the advantage, and among the 17 famous wines, only Xifeng (Fengxiang) and Dongjiu (Dongxiang) have 2 other aroma types.
At the third wine appraisal meeting, only four styles of sauce, aroma, fragrance and rice flavor were proposed, and the other liquor aromas were unified as "other aroma types". Since then, with the continuous deepening of liquor research, according to the assessment indicators such as liquor production process, aroma composition, flavor characteristics, etc., representative liquors in various places have been upgraded from enterprise standards to local standards, and then upgraded to national standards, gradually forming today's 12 major aroma types.
In addition to the rice flavor type and the soy sauce type that evolved from the rice flavor type, there are inextricable links between the other 10 aromatic liquor types.
Chinese liquor culture has a long history, but for liquor (distilled liquor) in the academic circles has always been controversial about its origin time, the more common saying is that Chinese liquor originated in the Yuan Dynasty. Distillation technology from the West inflow, the earliest introduced to Shanxi, the integration of the local sorghum brewing tradition gave birth to a similar today's fragrant liquor, and then by the Shanxi salt merchants to bring the clear liquor brewing techniques to the country, and the local terroir, traditional integration, and gradually formed the current major aromatic liquor.
Shanxi liquor master in the process of winemaking found that the fermentation of the clay pot buried in the ground, can naturally control the fermentation temperature in the clay pot in a very reasonable range, that is, will not be too fast in the early stage of wine cultivation, nor will the late temperature be too high to cause sour taste, prolong the fermentation time, more conducive to the production of aromatic substances, in short, the wine brewed in the earth tank is more fragrant and more mellow. At the same time, the winemaking of Shanxi wine uses sorghum as the main raw material, to know that in the era of not having enough to eat, it is a very luxurious thing to use rice and glutinous rice to make wine, and sorghum is easy to grow is not the main edible crop, and it is most suitable for brewing distilled wine. These two inventions have influenced future generations to this day.
Subsequently, the fragrant liquor was introduced from Shanxi to neighboring Shaanxi. In Shaanxi, the evolution of the earth tank gave birth to the change of incense type.
As we said in the previous article on fragrant liquor, the fragrant liquor pays attention to "one clear to the end", and the clay pot used for fermentation needs to be cleaned before each fermentation, and it is found that there is damage that needs to be replaced. But at that time, the clay pot was a valuable thing. When the Shaanxi people made wine, they found that even if they used a broken cylinder, they could complete the fermentation, and although the distilled liquor steamed with the fermented wine had a miscellaneous taste, it was good to drink. So in order to save, the broken cylinder was separated and made into an inverted trapezoidal "cellar" together with the mud, and finally the cylinder was simply not needed, and it was directly changed to a mud cellar. Fengxiang liquor was changed from "tank" to "cellar", which promoted the development of Chinese liquor aroma to further. We already know through modern technology that the flora carried in the mud produces ethyl caproate during fermentation, which is the main aroma component of strong aromatic liquor. But the ancients only think that this aroma is a miscellaneous taste, the pursuit of a clear and clean taste of the Shaanxi people so came up with a way, the fermented mud cellar to remove a layer, and then filled in the new mud to build a new cellar to start a new round of winemaking, this is the "Fengxiang type" liquor the most unique process characteristics, called "destroyed cellar", which also created the Fengxiang type liquor with strong flavor characteristics.
Jin Shang flourished in the Ming Dynasty, better than the Qing Dynasty, and with the footsteps of Jin Shang, the fragrant liquor technique also spread throughout the country.
Some Jin merchants all the way to the southwest into Sichuan, all the way to the east into Jianghuai, the local people from the tank to the cellar, the fusion of "old Wujiu process" to form a gentle as the characteristics of Jianghuai fragrant liquor, because Jianghuai is rich in products, so Jianghuai fragrant liquor raw materials in addition to sorghum, barley, peas, but also add wheat, rice, corn.
The other branch of Jin Merchants entered Sichuan. In Sichuan, the climate is warm and humid, which is particularly conducive to the reproduction of microorganisms. Under such climatic conditions, the "destruction of the cellar" method of Fengxiang wine does not work, the microorganisms in the newly built mud cellar are still very fast, the miscellaneous taste can not be removed, the wine is also more abundant aroma, slowly Sichuan people are used to and fall in love with this complex aroma, simply do not "destroy the cellar", over time the old cellar pool has become the biggest treasure of Sichuan school fragrant wine, there is still a "good wine also needs the cellar pool old" saying, so the key to the good and bad of Sichuan strong wine is to see the cellar age of the cellar pool, the older the cellar pool, the higher the wine rate.
Jin merchants continued southwest along the Chishui River to Guizhou. The terroir here has changed again, the climate of the Chishui River Basin to the south is more humid, the microorganisms are more abundant, but unlike the fertile land in the Sichuan Basin, Guizhou has less soil and more mountainous stones, so the local fermentation uses stone cellars, and the cellar mud is only used at the top of the stone cellar to cover the cellar pond, which can be insulated or breathable. Coupled with the characteristics of local grain production, it is finally formed: one-year cycle, two feedings, nine times cooking; eight fermentations, seven times to take the wine of the sauce wine "12987" brewing process.
So far, in addition to the rice-flavored liquor, the three basic aromatic liquors have been stereotyped, and the other eight aromatic types have been interlaced and integrated on the basis of clear, thick, sauce and rice, forming today's 12 major aromatic liquor patterns.
Dongjiu in Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, absorbs the brewing process of Daqu Sauce Wine, integrates the characteristic raw materials of Xiaoqu Liquor with rice and Baiyu flavor herbs, and uses the large and small cellars to ferment and steam at the same time, forming a unique Dongxiang type (medicinal aroma) liquor.
The old white dried fragrance type is more funny to say. The brewing process of old white dried is more similar to that of fenjiu, the difference is that the difference in geography has led to the aroma composition of old white dry and the opposite of fragrance, the fragrance type is mainly ethyl acetate, ethyl lactate is supplemented, and old white dry is mainly ethyl lactate, supplemented by ethyl acetate. I read a passage on the Internet, saying that a benevolent brother smelled the smell of a single lactic acid during aroma recognition training, what is the specific taste? It's the smell of sweat when you're sweating after playing... So everyone knows why the advertising slogan of Hengshui Lao Baigan is called "Drink the man's taste... Of course, this is just a paragraph, whether the old white dry smells or drinks, Okawa himself can't drink that taste.
Zhixiang is one of the youngest of the 12 major fragrance types, and it was only after the founding of the People's Republic of China that it gradually explored the formation of liquor aromas. Fermentation uses brick mud bottom cellar, brick wall porosity, suitable for the growth of microorganisms, mud bottom Sesame aroma type wine with a slight "strong flavor", koji is a mixture of bran koji and high temperature koji, with high temperature fermentation to produce sauce aroma, and sesame aroma comes from the "Maillard reaction" between raw materials, what is the specific everyone can ask the degree lady. Simply put, shiba is a faint smell of fried sesame seeds. Jingzhi I have tried, personally not too like, the taste is too thick, to sum up a word "greasy".
The tulip type represents the liquor of the drunkard, borrowing Wuliangye in terms of raw material composition and Dong liquor in the fermentation process, while retaining the traditional brewing recipe of Xiangxi for winemaking. Using the local fragrant glutinous rice and glutinous sorghum in xiangxi as raw materials, using the combination of large and small koji fermentation, in 1978, the unique aroma of liquor was successfully brewed, named "Xiangquan", and the high-end brand "Drunkard" was developed in the late 1980s.
In my opinion, the special flavored liquor should be similar to Dongjiu, which is a combination of strong, sauce and rice flavor, rather than the characteristics of strong, sauce and fragrance. From the perspective of the brewing process, rice is used as the main raw material (rice aroma), high temperature Daqu as a fermentation agent, red strip stone edge (sauce incense), local loess mud brick paving stone cellar, using the old Wuyu (typical process of strong fragrant wine) steaming and mixing process. From the four special wines that can be bought on the market now, the characteristics of the thick sauce and three spices are very far-fetched, so I checked it on the Internet and copied a passage of the text of the bottle of wine god:
"I bought a bottle of 80s beer lid four, open the bottle to smell, the aroma of this wine suddenly let me know what is "three types of possession is not dependent", although it is not awake yet, but the aroma that spills out is not the style of the current four special wines. It is a combination of caramel, sesame, grass and wood ash, bad incense, coconut incense, rice aroma, cellar aroma, after waking up, the entrance taste, this wine is sweet with scorched bitterness, the wine body sweetness is large, mellowness is general, the middle and back section is closed, and the tail taste is clean. Overall, this wine does have a strong sauce, but it is not one of the characteristics. There is a prominent burnt paste taste in its taste, which will make people think of the sauce taste, but it does not have the taste of sauce; its body has the sweetness of a strong wine, but it is not a mellow feeling, its wine is thin and lacks a sense of roundness; the wine to the middle, this wine has a refreshing sense of sharpness, like a very fragrant body feeling, but there is no fragrant taste. In contrast, the flavor of the four special wines is now completely different. ”
The brewing process of flavored liquor is mainly divided into "one-step method" and "two-step method", and most of the fragrant liquor on the market is a "two-step" brewing process, representing the baiyun side of Hubei. It adopts more than 2 times of feeding, 9 times of cooking, 8 times of fermentation, 7 times of koji wine process... Isn't it a bit familiar? The difference between the two-step process of the two-step process and the sauce wine is that the last two times of the eight fermentations use the fermentation method of the medium warm wine, so the wine brewed by the two-step method is a typical sauce with a strong flavor.
The aroma process of Kouzi cellar wine is called "one-step method" process, the raw materials are similar to Wuliangye Wuliangye, the wine koji is a medium temperature (strong fragrant song), high temperature (sauce aroma) and Kouzi cellar unique ultra-high temperature koji three ququ combined, forming a thick middle with sauce in the mouth cellar and fragrant taste.
Let's come to the last two scents (victory is in sight!) As one of the four major aroma types of Chinese liquor foundation, it is a pity that the rice flavor type has developed to the point where it is not popular today. The brewing process of rice-flavored liquor is different from other aromatic liquors, and it is brewed by fermentation of semi-solid liquid and low temperature koji. In my opinion, it is the simplest and cleanest of all the flavor types, and if you don't like the overly complex aromatic components of other liquors, then a good quality rice-flavored liquor is a good choice.
The soy sauce type liquor is produced in Guangdong, distilled rice wine after daqu semi-liquid fermentation, and then soaked in fat pork to form a kind of liquor. Cantonese people love to eat roasted pork, so bacon has also become a raw material for winemaking. The fat meat is steamed and put into the wine altar, this process is similar to the cured bacon, except that the bacon is dried, and the meat immersed in the wine altar is soaked in the wine for many years, and the fat meat that has been soaked for a long time will become crystal clear, like jade, which is the origin of the name "jade ice roast". There is also a saying that Cantonese people "meat" and "jade" pronunciation is close, originally called "meat ice roast", and later felt that the word "meat" is indecent, so the written text is written as "jade ice roast".
To summarize the brewing process of the major aroma types, let's only take the characteristics, and the more real friends please detour.
As can be seen on the figure, Daqu Baijiu, which is the main raw material of sorghum, is the backbone of Chinese liquor
So far, the twelve aromatic liquors have been summarized!
This time it is really vomiting blood code words, please see the officials here, and the subordinates are merciful.
Originally, the article also wanted to continue to write about the flavor of various liquors, but thinking about it, this content is also a "huge production", so it is still reserved for later, here is a preview.
In fact, it is very difficult to use words to write clearly about the flavor of each fragrance type, on the Internet review terms, "mellow, elegant, clean, long..." and other adjectives, the 12 fragrance types are described on the side, I believe few people can see much difference. Therefore, Dachuan tried to find a way to translate these reviews as much as possible in human language, so that the officials could more intuitively understand the flavor changes between the major fragrance types and look forward to it.
This time, the price of Jingdong's liquor product activities summarized before was put at the end, in addition to the traditional top three, there were also 9 other aromatic liquors.
Code words are not easy, but also hope that all the officials and subordinates will be merciful, if there is a gaffe, more inclusive.