Does rice wine have a shelf life?

Many people in our lives like to drink alcohol. Some people even travel around the country like traveling in order to drink famous wines from all over the country. In Shaoxing, my country, a relatively famous wine is called Zuohuangjiu. This kind of rice wine has been passed down since ancient times. Because of its unique brewing method, it also requires a special environment for storage, which creates a different flavor for rice wine. So, does rice wine have a shelf life?

Huangjiu is a national specialty of the Han Chinese. It is a brewed wine and occupies an important position among the world's three major brewed wines (huangjiu, wine and beer). After thousands of years of development, the members of the rice wine family have continued to expand and the varieties are dazzling. The names of wine are even more colorful. The most common way is to name the wine after its place of origin. Such as Daizhou Yellow Wine, Shaoxing Wine, Jinhua Wine, Danyang Wine, Jiujiang Fenggang Wine, Shandong Lanling Wine, Henan Shuanghuang Wine, etc. This division was more common in ancient times. Another type of classification is based on the representativeness of a certain type of wine, such as "Jiafanjiu", which is often a semi-dry rice wine. "Hua Diao wine" means semi-dry wine. "Fenggangjiu" (also known as "Xiangxuejiu" in Shaoxing area) means sweet or strong-sweet rice wine. "Good wine making" means semi-sweet wine.

The quality and taste of rice wine are usually maintained for 1 to 3 years, and this period varies with the quality of the rice wine, the winemaking method of the rice wine, the aging time of the rice wine, etc. Good quality rice wine is stored in a suitable environment for more than a year, and the various components in the wine will blend, decompose and generate with each other, reaching a micro-balance. It has a soft taste, obvious aged aroma, and a mellow and harmonious wine flavor, making it best for drinking. But after more than 3 years, the alcohol will evaporate and the quality will deteriorate.

Others are based on the appearance of the wine (such as color, turbidity, etc.), such as sake, turbid wine, white wine, yellow wine, and red wine (wine brewed with red yeast rice). Then there is the raw materials of the wine, such as glutinous rice wine, black rice wine, corn wine, millet wine, highland barley wine, etc. In ancient times, there was a distinction between boiled wine and non-boiled wine, and it was even divided according to the sales target, such as "Lu Zhuang".

The best storage location for rice wine is in a cool and dry place. The temperature should be above 4℃ and below 15℃. The changes are stable, and the humidity and ventilation conditions are good. In this way, the aging of the wine can be promoted and the loss of wine can be reduced. Secondly, when storing rice wine, it is best to use a ceramic jar and seal it with mud. This ancient packaging is conducive to the aging of rice wine and improves its aroma. Finally, rice wine should be stacked stably. The height of wine jars and wine boxes should generally not exceed 4 layers, and they should be turned over once a year.

Yellow rice wine must be aged, right? There is a movie called "Daughter's Red Wine", in which the protagonist buried jars of yellow rice wine underground and only dug them out to drink after his daughter got married. This is also the origin of the famous yellow rice wine "Daughter's Red Wine". "Mr. Pan said to the reporter with certainty. "My hometown is in Nanyang, and my elders have the habit of drinking rice wine. I have gradually started to like drinking rice wine in the past two years, especially in winter. I cut some ginger and warm it in hot water, which feels very good. However, I have never paid attention to the production date and shelf life of rice wine. ”

For the storage of rice wine, the requirements for external conditions seem to be more stringent. After the rice wine is taken out of the cellar and bottled, the ground environment does not have the conditions for conversion, and it is difficult to decompose the ethanol in the rice wine. The integrity of the seal will also be affected during transportation, and storing the wine for too long will cause alcohol to evaporate, thereby reducing the quality of the wine. Therefore, the shelf life of rice wine that is bottled and sold after leaving the cellar must be marked.