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Shaoxing Rice Wine
Appears in
By Ken Hom
Published 1998
Rice wine has been an integral part of Chinese cuisine for over two thousand years. At banquets and special feasts it is an essential element. It is made from a blend of glutinous rice, millet, yeast and spring water.
Shaoxing rice wine is China’s most famous wine. It is known in Chinese as hua tiao, or ‘carved flower’, from the name given to the pattern carved on the urns in which the wine is stored. The wine is kept in cellars until it matures, usually for ten years, although some have been aged for as long as one hundred years. With its amber colour, bouquet and alcohol content, it resembles sherry more than grape wine.