黄酒

Huangjiu (黄酒) means yellow wine: huáng (黄) for yellow or amber, jiǔ (酒) for wine and spirits. The color comes from the amber tones of fermented glutinous rice or millet, deepened by time in clay jars. Unlike baijiu, huangjiu is not distilled but fermented directly, placing it in the same technical family as wine and beer. Its alcohol content typically falls between 14 and 20 percent, far lower than distilled spirits.

The earliest written evidence for rice fermentation in China dates to the Shang Dynasty oracle bones, around 1200 BCE. The Spring and Autumn period texts (770-476 BCE) record huangjiu being offered at ritual feasts and sent as tribute between competing states. Confucius mentioned wine consumption in the Analects, and later commentators agreed he was referring to fermented grain drinks of the huangjiu type. The Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue describe wine gifts between rulers as early as the 5th century BCE.

Shaoxing wine (紹興酒), from the city of Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province, is the most celebrated regional variety and the form most exported. The city's canal water, considered unusually pure, was prized for fermentation, and by the Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE) Shaoxing wine had become a standard of quality across the empire. Families traditionally buried jars of Shaoxing wine at a daughter's birth to be opened at her wedding, a custom that gave one variety its name: nü'er hong, daughter's red.

Huangjiu lost ground to baijiu within China during the 20th century, as distilled spirits became cheaper and more widely available. It retained its role in cooking and in ceremonial contexts, particularly in Zhejiang and Jiangsu. In the 21st century, premium aged Shaoxing wines have attracted renewed attention from collectors in Japan, Taiwan, and among Chinese diaspora communities globally.