Shaoxing Rice Wine (绍兴黄酒) — Production, Grades, and Culinary Use

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Shaoxing huangjiu (绍兴黄酒, Shaoxing yellow wine) is the premier Chinese rice wine — a fermented rice wine made in Shaoxing city in Zhejiang province for at least 2,500 years, using a specific local water source (Jianhu lake water) and glutinous rice fermented with a mold starter (mai jiu qu, 麦酒曲). The resulting wine — amber-coloured, complex, slightly sweet, slightly sour, with notes of dried fruit and caramel — is used in Chinese cooking as a fundamental flavouring and aroma agent. It is the Chinese cooking wine par excellence. Shaoxing wine ranges from drinking-quality (3-year-aged varieties) to aged premium (10-year-aged Hua Diao varieties) to cooking grades (which have added salt to make them shelf-stable without a licence).

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