Different regions have different specialities of huangjiu, so depending on where you are ask our guide and they will be able to point you towards the right vintage.
Yellow wine, known in Chinese as huangjiu, is a traditional Chinese beverage made from water, a cereal grain like rice, and a jiuqu starter culture, a mixture of molds, yeasts and bacteria that can kickstart the fermentation process. Huangjiu is not distilled and so contains less than 20% alcohol because at that concentration the ethanol actually inhibits further fermentation.
Huangjiu literally translates as yellow wine, but in its various styles it can range from almost clear to beige or reddish brown. Most, however, are recognisably yellow, and it is sometimes even drunk warm. But depending on the style, some producers age their huangjiu for as long as twenty years before selling it on.
Yellow wines are classified by several factors, including dryness/sweetness, the started used in production and the production method. The sweetness is, no surprise, dictated by the sugar content, and the starter depends on which rice is used and which species they are cultured with.
Production methods can vary quite dramatically: some heat the rice, some cool it, some shovel in a constant stream of rice and others fortify the brew by adding distilled Chinese wines to halt the fermentation process while there are still lots of unfermented sugars, making for an especially sweet wine.
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