How Shaoxing wine, once used only for cooking, has made it onto Michelin-star drink menus

How Shaoxing wine, once used only for cooking, has made it onto Michelin-star drink menus

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When you think of Shaoxing wine, do you picture it in a glass or sizzling in a wok?

For most, Shaoxing wine is that clear, amber-hued cooking essential with a distinctive aromatic nose that lends sweet and briny flavours to food, deepening and enriching dishes.

But this 3,000-year-old yellow wine, made from glutinous rice, water from Jianhu Lake and a wheat-based yeast, is so much more than just a seasoning.

It is one of the oldest wines in the world and was a beverage of choice in China for the upper classes during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, as well as being a staple at official banquets.

Workers at the Dong Qu Shaoxing Winery shift bags of glutinous rice to be used in winemaking. Photo: Evelyn Chen
Jianhu Lake water is mixed with yeast and rice at Dong Qu Shaoxing Winery. This mixture is poured into cooled rice in a vat and mixed, after which they sit for four days. Photo: Evelyn Chen
Jianhu Lake water is mixed with yeast and rice at Dong Qu Shaoxing Winery. This mixture is poured into cooled rice in a vat and mixed, after which they sit for four days. Photo: Evelyn Chen

After a period of decline, in part because of the Japanese invasion of China and Communist Party rule, Shaoxing wine is finally reclaiming the spotlight.

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