Wine culture

3 min read

History of Chinese Wine

Chinese wine is one of the six world-famous varieties of spirits brandy，whisky，rum，vodka，and gin）It was firstly recorded in the book of Shi Ji by Sima Qian in China It was said that Zhang Qian brought back the grape growing and wine making skills from the West Region after he finished the diplomatic mission for the han emperor But some drinking vessels have been found from the Ne lithic Yangshao Culture Sites，from Yuchi Temple in south Chinas Anhui Province and from King Zhongshan tomb at Pingshan in Herbei Province.And the liquid in the e vessels proved technically something like wine Wine culture has quite a long history，and developed from one dynasty to another with four main possible varying.In the Tang Dynasty winemaking skills were known by ordinary people，so wine making had its golden age.In the Yuan Dynasty，as Maco Polo Travelogue described，there were manyvineyards in Taiyuan of shanxi Province.

In the ming dynasty，Li Shizhen mentioned in his book Compendium ofMateria Medica that wine is good for people’s health and skin The most famous brand is maotai in Guizhou Province and this holds the title of the National liquor”.It is said that an empty bottle that was once filled with Maotai will emanateits fragrance after a few days There are also other excellent brands such as Wuliangye and Luzhou tequ .

Classification of Chinese Wine

White wine or liquor has a more complicated productionmethod and is made from various staples-broomcorn, corn rice, or wheat. It looks crystal clear, smells aromatic, and tastes tasty.

There are five types according to its fragrance

(1) Delicate fragrance type(Fen Wine in Shanxi Province

2) Strong fragrance type(Luzhou Laojiao Wine in Sichuan Province

(3) Corn fragrance type(Sanhua Wine in Guilin

(4) Sauce fragrance type(Maotai in Guizhou ProvInce

(5) Multi-fragrance type(Dong Wine in Guizhou Province

Yellow Wine

Yellow wine is unique and traditional in China. It is typi cal of yellow color. It is made from rice and sticky rice the alcohol content at 10-15 per cent The most popular brands of yellow wine are Shaoxing Yellow wine in Zhejiang Province and Shumi Yellow wine in Shandong Province, and Hongqu yellow wine in Fujian Province.

Fruit wine

fruit wine is mainly made from grapes, pears, oranges, litchis, sugarcane, hawthorn berries, and waxberries and all are quite palatable, the alcohol content about 15 percent.

Medicine Wine

Medicine Wine is typical in China. It is used for health The famous one is Zhuyeqing in Shanxi Province.

Beer

Beer has much lower alcohol content and is most com monly made from barley and hops, the alcohol content between 2-5 percent Beer has thrived since the early 20th century.Now we have Qingdao Beer

Drinking Games

Drinking games came into being in the Western Zhou and thrived in the Sui and Tang dynasties.It’s unique to china Drinking game is very popular among the gentlemen and intellectuals，as well as the lower-class people.Its purpose is to add to the enjoyment，and avoid drinking to excess There are two kinds of drinking games.One is called the Iterary ，the other is called the common.

The literary drinking games can only be enjoyed by the educated people，for entertainment of the kind is to compose couplets or verses，ask riddles，and even write poemsThe common drinking games do not require a great deal of acumen and are easy to learn and play.but usually they are very noisy.

Throwing Dice

Dices are rolled for others to guess number of spots.If not correct，one has to take a cup of drink

Finger Guessing

Two people stretch out fingers at the same time while shouting out a number from 2 to 10.If one shouts out a numberthat is equal to the total number of fingers extended，then he will win，while the person shouts a number that is less or more will lose the game and has to take a drink as punishment.Toadd to the fun of the game，the players do not just give the numbers but will say a relevant phrase such as two kind broth ers to represent 2，”three stars shining to represent 3，”making a fortune in four seasons to represent 4，and so on The relerant phrases vary with places.For example，Shanghais is different from beijings.