Daughter's Red: The Wine Buried for a Wedding

Some wines are made for a vintage. This one was made for a person. In Shaoxing, the story of Nü'er Hong begins on the day a girl is born and ends, years later, at her wedding.

A jar for a daughter

According to Shaoxing tradition, when a daughter was born, her family would brew wine, seal it in clay jars and bury it in the ground, often under a tree in the courtyard. The jars stayed there while she grew up: ten, fifteen, eighteen years.

On her wedding day, the jars were dug up and the aged wine was served to the guests and sent with the bride to her new family. The wine was part of the celebration and part of the dowry. Its name, 女儿红 (nǚ'ér hóng), means "daughter's red", because red is the colour of weddings and joy in China.

Aged by love

Buried for many years at a steady, cool temperature, the wine grew darker, richer and more precious. The jars were often decorated with painted or carved scenes of flowers, birds and stories. That is why aged Shaoxing wine is also called Huadiao (花雕), "carved flowers".

And for sons?

Sons had their own tradition. Wine buried at a boy's birth was dug up when he passed the imperial examinations, or at his own wedding. It was called 状元红 (zhuàngyuán hóng), "the top scholar's red", after the title given to the best candidate in the empire's highest exam. Families hoped the wine would bring luck to his studies.

The famous story

A popular folk tale tells of a tailor in Shaoxing who buried jars of wine when he learned his wife was expecting, hoping for a son. A daughter was born, and in his disappointment he forgot the wine. Years later, at her wedding, he remembered, dug up the jars and found the wine had become extraordinary. The guests loved it, and neighbours began burying wine for their own daughters.

Like many folk stories, it has many versions. What matters is the custom it explains.

What it tastes like

Nü'er Hong is usually a semi-dry wine, in the Jiafan family, aged for years. Expect a deep amber colour and notes of walnut, dates, caramel and soy, with a long, warm finish. Served gently warmed, it is one of the most comforting wines in China.

Today

Nü'er Hong is now also the name of well-known aged Shaoxing wines, often sold in decorated ceramic jars. Few families still bury wine in the courtyard, but the tradition lives on in the bottles, in the stories told at the table and in weddings where an old jar is still opened for the guests.

How to drink it

Warm it gently in a jug of hot water, pour it into small cups and serve it with braised pork, roast duck or aged cheese. Or keep a bottle for a special day: that is what it was made for.

In one sentence

Daughter's red is the Shaoxing tradition of burying wine at a daughter's birth and opening it at her wedding, and today the name of some of China's most loved aged rice wines.