If you are a guest in Yidu Town, Yongchun County, the enthusiastic villagers will offer you a glass of rice wine that is delicious in color, aroma and flavor, allowing you to indulge in it. Yidu rice wine has a long history and is famous far and wide, and its wine-making technology is well-known to every household. The wine is good wine, but it has no trademark or bottling. People store the wine in urns and cover it tightly with a bag of "sandbags." The wine will become more mellow and fragrant as it ages. Yongchun people have been drinking this mellow rice wine for decades or hundreds of years

Rice wine has been brewed for thousands of years

Yidu rice wine has a long history, with a history of more than 1,000 years. Historical records: During the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song Dynasty, Chen Guang, a Jinshi in Yidu, resigned and lived in seclusion in Daishanyan. Zhu Xi, who was a Jinshi in the same year as him, came to visit many times. The two of them chanted poems and sang peace on Daishan Mountain. At that time, they had rice wine to cheer up. Zhu Xi He drank wine and recited poems, praising Mount Dai as "the first peak of Yuepeng". It can be seen that people in the capital were able to brew rice wine before this.

When talking about rice wine, we have to start with red wine. There is a beautiful legend here. In a peaceful era long, long ago, people had enough food and clothing, and lived and worked in peace and contentment. The capital at that time was called Bixi, and kind and hard-working people lived in the mountains on both sides of Bixi. There was a scholar who taught who liked to travel around mountains and rivers. He often took the lunch bag prepared for him by his wife on mountain climbing expeditions.

Once, when he went up the mountain, he picked many delicious wild fruits. After filling his stomach, he left his rice bag in a sunny cave. A few months later, the scholar went to climb a cliff again and saw the rice bag he had left behind. He picked it up and saw that the rice had turned reddish. Not only was it not moldy, but it also exuded a strong fragrance that he had never smelled before. He was very happy and took the rice bag home, and his smart wife was also surprised. She was good at making steamed buns. From the fermentation of flour to the fermentation of rice, she came up with the idea of ????experimenting.

So the scholar’s ??wife steamed a bucket of rice and boiled a pot of water. After it cooled, she poured it into the vat, then evenly mixed the rice in the rice bag into it and sealed it. . Sure enough, the rice in the vat began to ferment, its color gradually turned red, and a fragrant aroma came to the nostrils. After a month, clear red and translucent red wine could be scooped out. After half a lifetime of careful research, the couple invented the original technology for making red yeast rice, red wine, and rice wine, and passed it on to future generations. In this way, passed down from generation to generation, people began to drink red wine and rice wine, and gradually understood the production methods and medicinal value of wine, forming a distinctive folk wine culture.

In the Qing Dynasty, Huangban Flood Market was established in the capital, and Huangban Street (now Old Street) became prosperous. On market days, some farmers and traders in Zhangping, Datian, Dehua, Anxi and other places They will bring local specialties here to trade. At that time, several wine shops were opened on Huangban Street. The wine was packed in small urns and sold to four nearby counties. It was famous far and wide. The production technology of Yidu rice wine is also getting better and better. From making red yeast rice, selecting raw materials to "shochu" method and storage method, people have gradually figured out the best wine-making technology through repeated trials, making the rice wine crystal clear and mellow and attractive. .

For a long time, rice wine has become a necessary drink for local people at home. After a hard day's work, drinking some warm wine in the evening can relax your muscles and strengthen your body. Rice wine also has its unique medicinal value. Old Chinese medicine practitioners often use it as medicine for internal and external injuries and backaches. Here; local women who are in confinement need to drink rice wine for a few days to "relax their qi", and then drink red wine for a month to "replenish their qi"; red wine and rice wine are also indispensable condiments for people to cook, make soups, etc.

The brewing process is delicate and delicate

To brew good rice wine, you must first have good red yeast. Now there are only two companies in the city that can make it. It is said that it is a secret recipe passed down from ancestors and is not passed down to others. It is said that it is made from a combination of Aspergillus and rice. The rice is first steamed and placed in the cellar, and then mixed with Aspergillus. After a specific time, temperature, humidity and specific processes, each grain of rice will turn dark. Red, forming red yeast. People exchanged rice for songs, and even today they still use measures. Both parties have to "consider" the measurements and conversions.

The main raw materials for brewing rice wine are rice, red yeast rice and cold boiled water. Good rice wine is made from glutinous rice and is available in every farmer’s house. The processed glutinous rice is steamed and dried on bamboo plaques. Mountain residents can all get the gift of nature. They can find a spring with gurgling water from the cracks in the rock cliffs, and bring the natural "mineral water" into their homes to enjoy it to their heart's content. While the glutinous rice is cooling, boil a pot of "mineral water" and cool it for later use.

People prepare glutinous rice, red yeast rice and cold boiled water in a certain proportion and seal them in a large vat.

In farmhouses, you can often see large vats neatly arranged. The glutinous rice in the vats is fermenting, bubbling brightly and brightly. After a while, the raw materials in the tank melt into one, and the color gradually changes from clear red to deep red, and finally to dark red.

The fermentation time is generally 20 to 30 days (fermentation speeds vary in different seasons due to different temperatures). Experienced people can judge the degree of fermentation by sight and taste. Then squeeze a wine cup into the large vat, and the translucent, mellow and sweet red wine will be filtered into it, and then the red wine will be scooped up by the spoonful and put into the vat.

After fermenting for a few more days, it will be ready to "make wine". The mountain people made their own "shojiu tripod" by processing wooden blocks into a round barrel with a small top and a large bottom. A pot was installed on the top. The pot was filled with cold water. When the water temperature rose, it was replaced. When making wine, pour the raw materials in the large vat into the large pot in batches and heat it, with a "shochu tripod" tightly covered on top. The heat should be moderate. The alcohol in the large pot will rise with the steam, and when it meets the bottom of the "shochu tripod" pot, it will cool and condense, and a small stream of rice wine will flow out continuously through the guide tube. This rice wine is crystal clear, sweet and refreshing, and fragrant.

Fine wine feeds the family

The technology of brewing rice wine has been passed down from generation to generation, and now there are several large rice wine producers in every village in the capital. Huang Ji, a villager in Huangsha Village, a famous old revolutionary area in Yongchun County, is a typical example. His family’s brewing technology and experience are passed down from ancestors, and it is unclear which generation started brewing. The "shochu tripod" that the villagers used to use was borrowed from his family, saying that the tripod produced rich and mellow wine.

Huang Ji’s mother is over 70 years old this year. The glutinous rice used for brewing wine has been milled and machine-milled. She doesn’t know how many cabinets of millet she used, and she can’t remember how much wine she made, but she said that she cooks it at home. Not a single bottle of wine has gone bad. Now that the son has inherited his mother's business, the old man has much more leisure. Whenever someone encounters a problem in brewing, she often comes to ask for advice, and she is happy to answer it without leaving any secrets. Anyone who wants to prepare red wine or rice wine for "confinement" always invites her to give guidance. She also enthusiastically comes to the house as a "consultant" and often visits to prevent the red wine from going sour.

The house of Huang Ji's house is lined with large and small vats, and the aroma of wine can be smelled from a distance. The aroma of wine that spreads throughout the four seasons is enough to make people drunk even if they don't drink. Every day, after the couple gets up early to clean, they first plan their day's work. After breakfast, they usually steam glutinous rice and boil water. At noon, they ladle out red wine or "burnt rice wine." In the afternoon, they pour various raw materials evenly into the vat and number them carefully. The rest of the time still has to prepare pig food. Huang Ji's family raises four to six pigs all year round. The pigs will gain weight after eating the lees of "shojiu". They can be slaughtered in a few months. The money from selling the pigs is also a considerable income. . The couple was busy like this all day long. Even if they took a shower and changed clothes every day, they still smelled of "alcohol". Because the wine he brews is of good quality and has a wide market, customers usually come to buy wine in bulk or take it home in batches. The Huang family lived by selling rice wine and supported their son to attend university in Beijing.

The wine culture is colorful

Yidu rice wine has become a local specialty, and red yeast rice has also become a specialty. People from nearby towns often come to Yidu by themselves or entrust their relatives and friends to buy red yeast. They all say that the wine made from red yeast fermented in Yidu is unique, mellow, translucent, and full of flavor.

Because every household has rice wine (those who don’t brew it themselves will buy some in bulk), it is inevitable to drink a few glasses during festivals and entertaining guests. Over time, Yidu people naturally gave birth to generations of Yidu people who were good at drinking, and also naturally gave birth to Yidu people who were simple, straightforward, and bold in character. Local people have learned to taste wine since childhood and pay great attention to the taste of wine, which lies in quality rather than quantity. It contains rich folk wine culture.

Take a toast as an example. Generally, the host toasts the estranged guests first, and then the close guests. The toasts are three glasses each to show sincerity; the guests who have a large capacity for drinking will return the toast, which shows that they are sincere. Being polite also means reciprocating; toasting can also increase the atmosphere at the table in an eclectic way, such as passing customs and guessing wine

People can also judge from a person's deportment, speech, and amount of alcohol when drinking. The size and the way he drinks are used to judge a person's cultivation, character and social knowledge. There is a certain relationship between a person's strength and his drinking capacity. Strong men are generally good at drinking, have great strength for heavy lifting, and have great endurance.

Everyone in the city has rice wine, and everyone can talk about the wine culture or rules.

The lives of people in Yidu have become more interesting because of rice wine.

(No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)