Rice Wine history

Huangjiu, 'yellow wine', is one of the oldest fermented drinks in the world. Residues found in pottery at Jiahu, in Henan, show that people were fermenting a drink of rice, honey and fruit around 9,000 years ago, and early Chinese texts already describe qu, the mould starter that turns grain starch into sugar and alcohol at the same time. Its most famous home is Shaoxing, in Zhejiang, where wine has been brewed for over two thousand years with glutinous rice, wheat qu and the water of Jian Lake. In 353 AD, near Shaoxing, the calligrapher Wang Xizhi and his friends floated cups of wine down a stream at the Orchid Pavilion and wrote poems as they drank, a scene that still defines the drink's literary image. Under the Qing, Shaoxing wine became a symbol of good fortune, poured at weddings, birthdays and rites. Families buried jars at the birth of a daughter and opened them at her wedding: the origin of the name nü'er hong, 'daughter's red'. Writers made it part of everyday life too: Lu Xun's story 'Kong Yiji' is set in a Shaoxing tavern where workers drink warm rice wine at the counter. Today huangjiu is divided into three great regional styles, the Shaoxing style, the northern style of Shandong and the red qu wines of Fujian, and governed by a national standard that sorts it by sweetness. It is mostly drunk in eastern China and used in cooking everywhere, but aged Shaoxing is slowly finding a place among sherry and sake lovers abroad.