Only the people who live in the south of the Yangtze love Huangjiu?

In the cold and humid winter in the south of the Yangtze, people will invite a few friends, warm a pot of Huangjiu and enjoy it slowly for an hour. However, some people wondered that if Huangjiu, a product with the humanities complex, is only drunk by people who live in the south of the Yangtze. Perhaps, in some crazy occasions, spirits with the high alcohol content have become the choice of many people. However, with the pursuit of the "healthy and good life", the health Huangjiu with a low alcohol content and rich cultural background will be favored by more people.

From the perspective of the development history of Chinese wine, Huangjiu is not only favored by people who live in the south of the Yangtze, but also the main banquet wine in Beijing and Guangzhou. In the 1930s, there were 2246 wineries in Shaoxing, which became a unique scenic spot of Shaoxing. In the hometown of Huangjiu, the author learned that the new value of this "traditional industry" in Zhejiang Province and Shaoxing City has been cognized, and the next world wine producing area in China will be revived here.

Before the founding of the people's Republic of China, Shaoxing Jiu was the main banquet wine in Beijing.

In 2017, Zhou Jingliang, a 91-year-old researcher of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, put 105 Shaoxing Huangjiu tickets which were collected by his father together in a book and published the book called "Laohai Heritage - Zhou Shutao's Wine Tickets". Later, he wrote a recollection article called "My Father and Wine". In the artcicle, Mr. Zhou said that before the founding of the people's Republic of China, Shaoxing Huangjiu was served at all the formal banquets in Beijing. And the white spirits are never served at the banquet.

Zhou Jingliang was born in Anhui Province, grew up in Tianjin Province and worked in Beijing. He never go to Shaoxing in his life and he is not a dipsomania. His son often comes to visit him at about 8 p.m.. And the father and son will enjoy a cup of Huangjiu in the living room and chat. The old gentleman is very fond of Shaoxing Huangjiu. He always recalls the scene of drinking Huangjiu with his father when he was young and praises the quality of Shaoxing Huangjiu.

Zhou Jingliang is a researcher who specializes in the research on Geology and geophysics. He was sent to the Soviet Union when he was young and he is the first person who used electron diffraction to analyze the crystal atomic structure in China. Mr. Zhou was born in a officials aristocratic family. His great grandfather, Zhou Fu, was a feudal official in the late Qing Dynasty and he founded the first military academy called [Tianjin Military Academy" in China. His father, Zhou Shutao, was served as the vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and the vice chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC. He is also a famous ancient book collector and cultural relic connoisseur.

Zhou Jingliang's father likes Shaoxing Huangjiu best. In his opinion, as for the quality, Huangjiu is the highest among all kinds of wine, and the aroma of Huangjiu is elegant and mellow. Zhou Shutao is a politician and industrialist, and he is quite interesting. In the past few decades, Zhou Shutao would keep the wine tickets when he drunk Huangjiu at a banquet. Sometimes he would write down his feelings in a piece of paper. There are 105 tickets and 14 inscriptions attached to the tickets now. Wine tickets are printed with the winery's name, location, owner's name, distribution location and other information, and the wine making year is stamped with a wooden stamp. When winemakers seal the wine jar, they will fold the wine tickets, put them at the mouth of the jar, and then seal the mouth of the jar with clay. This is an old-fashioned anti-counterfeiting method.

Of the 105 wine tickets, there is no information about shipping wine to Beijing, Fujian and Guangzhou on 17 wine tickets, and there is information about shipping wine to Beijing, Fujian and Guangzhou on the other 88 wine tickets. Winemakers would put the wine tickets which indicating the shipping information at the mouth of the jar when they seal the wine jar.

In 1959, on the 10th anniversary of the founding of new China, leaders of 12 socialist countries, including the Soviet Union, stayed in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. At that time, the Shaoxing State-Owned Winery carefully selected 400 jars of Huangjiu as the state banquet wine to the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse for celebration.

Shaoxing has more than 2200 wineries.

Winery is the witness of the development and prosperity of Shaoxing Huangjiu, and also an important symbol of Shaoxing Huangjiu cultural heritage. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the development of commodity economy, the scale of Shaoxing wineries was gradually expanding. In 1934, Shaoxing Huangjiu was in a period of great prosperity. According to the records, there were 2246 wineries in Shaoxing at that time. To be specific, there were 576 wineries in Dongpu, 435 wineries in Ruanshe, 414 wineries in Keqiao, 359 wineries in the downtown, 282 wineries in Gaobu, 85 wineries in Dongguan, and 95 wineries in Qianqing and Anchang.

According to the China Industrial Records (the 1933 version), there were 68 wineries with an annual output of more than 300 vats at that time. The Zhang Dongming winery, Gao Changxing winery, Mao Wanmao winery, Mao Dasheng winery, Zhang Zhangji winery, Shan Yuantai winery and Zhang Xinghao winery which were located in Ruanshe were well-known at that time. And the annual output of Mao Dasheng winery was 2570 vats. There were also many large wineries in Hutang, such as Tian Derun winery, Li Wanchun winery, Zhang Qingji winery, Tian Zhongji winery and so on. Among them, the annual output of Zhang Wanrun winery and Ye Wanyuan winery was 2910 vats and 2300 vats respectively.

Compared with Ruanshe and Hutang, Dongpu is superior in winery quantity and scale. According to historical records, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were many famous wineries along the Yuefu bridge. Yunji winery was not far from the bridge and Xiaozhen winery was on the north of the bridge. According to legend, Emperor Qianlong passed through Dongpu when he visited the south of the Yangtze River. He passed the Yuefu bridge and tasted Huangjiu made in the Xiaozhen winery. After tasting the wine, he wrote a poem: The wine made in Dongpu is the best in the world. In Qing Dynasty, there were 3000 households in Dongpu and one third of them were wineries. Famous wineries such as Yunji winery, Xiaozhen winery and Tang Yuanyuan winery sprang up at that time. And it is worth mentioning that Zhouqing wine of the Yunji winery won the gold medal of 1915 Panama World Expo.

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many Shaoxing wineries began to set up wine shops and wineries in other places which were similar with restaurants nowadays which sold Huangjiu and provided meals. Before 1949, there were more than 40 wine shops in Wuhan Province and there were also wine shops in Yulin City of Shanxi Province and some cities in the northeast. Therefore, Shaoxing Huangjiu was very famous in these places. In Shaoxing literature and history materials, according to the records of the Zhang Dongmimng winery which was located in Ruanshe, in 1842, in the period of five-port trading, the annual output of the Zhang Dongmimng winery was about 6000 or 7000 vats, with each vat of 500 or 600 Jin (a unit of weight, equal to 1/2 kilogram). In 1848, Zhang Dongming winery opened two wine shops (south and north) in Shanghai firstly, and then set up Quancheng Mingji winery in Tianjin as an organization to sell its products. After the opening of Quancheng Mingji winery, Beijing Tongrentang pharmacy specially ordered pharmaceutical wine from Zhang Dongming winery. And Zhang Dongming winery specially produced the high-quality wine named "Shiba Liutong" for the pharmacy. However, the cooperation was abolished due to the warlords fight in the early years of the Republic of China.

However, because the winery owners were mostly local landlords and rich businessmen, influenced by the transformation of private enterprises, the government's unified purchase and marketing of grain and other factors, after the founding of new China, the wineries declined gradually and stepped down from the historical stage. Only a few wineries became public-private wine-making enterprises. The several big enterprises of Shaoxing Huangjiu nowadays have evolved from wineries.

The revival of Huangjiu: not only in production, but also in marketing

As one of the traditional alcoholic beverages in China, Huangjiu, together with wine and beer, are three well-known fermented alcoholic beverages in the world. Huangjiu is unique in the amber color, fragrance and multiple tastes. For example, you can enjoy six tastes when you drink the high-quality Shaoxing Huadiao Jiu (Jiafan Jiu). And the wine is sweet but not greasy, slightly bitter and sour but delectable. In December 1988, the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse sent a thanks letter to the Shaoxing State-Owned Winery, in which it said: The Gu Yue Long Shan Jiafan Jiu and Huadiao Jiu produced by your company have been specially served in various banquets and state banquets since the establishment of the guesthouse in 1959, and have been appreciated by the guests and leaders. I sincerely appreciate your support to the guesthouse over the years.

In our country, Huangjiu has been regarded as the health wine since ancient times. Huangjiu contains rich nutrition, and it is called the "liquid cake". In addition to alcohol and water, Huangjiu also contains 18 kinds of amino acids. Among them ,8 kinds of necessary amino acids cannot be synthesized by the human body. What`s more, Huangjiu contains many digestible nutrients, such as dextrin, maltose, glucose, lipids, glycerin, higher alcohols, vitamins, organic acids and so on. These ingredients make Huangjiu become an alcoholic beverage with the low alcohol content and high nutritional value. Huangjiu tastes bitter, sweet and spicy. Drinking Huangjiu in winter can promote blood circulation, dispel cold, clear and activate the channels and collaterals, and effectively prevent from getting cold. Moderate and regular drinking is helpful to promote blood circulation and boost metabolism, and can nourish blood and skin.

Huangjiu is the quintessence of China. At present, Shaoxing is the largest production area of Huangjiu in China. The output and sales revenue of large-scale Huangjiu enterprises account for 13.53% and 17.6% respectively of the nation`s total. A few days ago, Qian Xiaohua, the chairman of China Shaoxing Yellow Rice Wine Group Co., LTD., wrote an article named [How to Build Shaoxing into a World Famous Wine Producing Area under the Background of Dawan District Construction". Mr. Qian suggested to build a world famous wine producing area in Shaoxing by taking "industrial integration, brand combination and cross industry integration" as a breakthrough to realize the promotion of the whole industry. Through the construction of the Huangjiu industrial park and Huangjiu town, the five major movements, namely, new culture movement, new high-end movement, new consumption movement, new business movement and new value movement are carried out to create new value of Huangjiu industry, realize the revival of Huangjiu and let more people enjoy the delicious Huangjiu.