Sauce-Aroma Baijiu (Jiangxiang Baijiu, 酱香型白酒)

Sauce-aroma baijiu belongs to the upper Chishui valley in northern Guizhou, around Maotai town in Renhuai, where sorghum spirit has long been distilled and where the style takes its place among the aroma categories that the modern Chinese trade uses to sort baijiu. The category is a twentieth-century classification of a style much older than its name, and the eight great cuisines frame plays no part in it. The spirit is carried by distilleries, state and private, and by the banquet table, where it is the spirit of the formal toast; Fuchsia Dunlop in Invitation to a Banquet treats baijiu as the drink of Chinese ceremonial dining.

Sauce-aroma baijiu is a spirit distilled from fermented sorghum, Sorghum bicolor, with wheat qu, the saccharifying and fermenting starter made from raw or lightly cooked wheat. It is made by solid-state fermentation in repeated cycles: the grain is steamed, mixed with qu, piled, fermented in pits, and distilled, and the process is repeated over several rounds before the spirits are aged in earthenware jars and blended. The name refers to its savoury aroma, which recalls fermented soy and roasted grain rather than any sauce added to it. It is clear and usually bottled at 50 to 55 per cent alcohol by volume, and it has a dry, deep, lingering character quite unlike the sharper strong-aroma style.

Sauce-aroma baijiu is drunk at the banquet table in small cups, toast by toast, alongside rich, salty and strongly seasoned dishes, and Dunlop describes baijiu as the spirit of Chinese ceremonial dining. Its dry, savoury depth and high strength cut through fat and chilli and clear the palate between courses, which is the structural reason it is poured with meat, braises and fiery dishes rather than with delicate steamed fish. It is served at room temperature, never chilled.