Step 6 · Read the label
Ten characters
You don't need to read Chinese to understand a Chinese bottle. These ten characters will take you a long way.
酒 (jiǔ): alcohol, any alcoholic drink. You will see it on almost every label.
白 (bái): white. In 白酒, "white alcohol".
黄 (huáng): yellow. In 黄酒, "yellow wine", rice wine.
葡萄 (pútao): grape. In 葡萄酒, grape wine.
啤 (pí): the first sound of 啤酒, beer.
香 (xiāng): fragrant, aroma. In baijiu it names the aroma type, as in 酱香 (sauce aroma).
型 (xíng): type. Together with 香 it makes 香型, "aroma type", printed on baijiu labels.
度 (dù): degree. On a label, 53度 means 53% alcohol.
陈 (chén): aged, old. Common on rice wine labels.
年 (nián): year. Next to 陈, it tells you how many years a wine was aged.