Autumn and winter are the best seasons for storage. "Sealing" is an important concept in traditional Chinese culture. The earliest written record of the seal can be traced back to the Qin Dynasty. "Historical Records: Feng Zen Book" records, "Its rites are quite used by the Taizhu to worship Yong God, and the seals are secret, and the world cannot remember them." ”
Unlike most foods, wine is extremely shelf-stable, and pure grain wine tastes better the more it is stored. In the past, the pottery jar was used to hold wine, so it was called "sealed altar wine". After several years of precipitation, Fengtan wine has added a layer of weight to the etiquette and has become an important part of Chinese wine culture.
Nowadays, the altar sealing ceremony has become an important cultural activity for many wine companies, in addition to prayer and gratitude, there is also a retrospective of the traditional etiquette.
The liquor brewed from pure grains is vigorous, and the essence of its storage is a kind of re-nourishment of the microorganisms of the original liquor. In the process of sealing the jar and storing it, the wine body continues to mellow and mature, the taste becomes more and more mellow, the fragrance becomes more and more full, the older it is, the more fragrant it is, and the more it is put put, the better it tastes. The longer it is sealed, the higher the value of the liquor itself.
Sealing the altar is a traditional skill, with a lot of exquisiteness, and there is a deep hidden ingenuity that can be seen and invisible.
Pottery jar storage: The pottery jar has good air permeability, and the wine body is closely connected with the external microbial community, natural exhalation, exchange and fusion, which ensures that the wine continues to mellow and mature in the jar.
Hand-sealed altar: First, brush a layer of glutinous rice flour at the sealing place of the wine jar, cover it with bamboo silk extracted from pure natural green bamboo, then cover it with fiber cloth and red cotton that symbolizes festivity, and finally seal it tightly with a strong old hemp rope soaked in old wine.
The storage environment and temperature should be professional: the sealed altar wine needs to be stored in the professional environment of the winery, above ground or semi-underground, ventilated and dry, protected from light, and the ambient temperature should be kept at about 5 25, which is conducive to the evolution of the wine.
Pay attention to the storage time: the longer the storage period of the sealed altar wine, the higher the maturity of the wine and the purer the aroma. However, old wines that are more than 15 years old are generally used as important flavored wines, and when drinking, they need to be blended with shorter wines for better taste.
Inherited to this day, sealing this ritualistic wine ceremony is not only an important part of Chinese wine culture, but also one of the important symbols in Chinese traditional culture, which has entered people's daily life.
The Southern Grass and Trees (Jin Dynasty Ji Han) recorded: "The southern people have a woman who is several years old, both big winemaking, when Hou Dongling is exhausted, put the wine poppy, dense on it, and in the middle of the scab. When the spring water is full, it is not **. When the female general marries, she will take wine for the guests, which is called the female wine, and its taste is beautiful. ”
What is described here is the popular "daughter red" wine in Jiangsu and Zhejiang in ancient times. Later, the people gave birth to a boy in the family and also made wine and sealed it, looking forward to the opening of the altar to celebrate when the high school champion was born, which is called "champion red" wine.
"Daughter Red" and "Champion Red" convey the expectations of parents and good wishes for their children. Nowadays, on important occasions such as the birth of a child, the full moon, and the first birthday, many parents will choose to seal a bottle of wine as a commemorative gift.
There used to be many drinking lovers who learned from the ancients to bury good wine in the soil or sake lees, fantasizing about harvesting the elixir and jade liquid in the future. In fact, due to the difference in modern packaging materials, the wine that was buried in the soil or sake lees on a whim may have moldy packaging and a peculiar smell when it is dug up again.
For new sake that you want to seal, it is recommended to store it with the original sake box and box, and you can also attach a specially designed "seal".
If it is an old wine more than 10 years ago, it is recommended to open the outer packaging and check it, and it is best to seal the bottle with another layer before storing it. The temperature and humidity of the space where the wine is stored should be relatively constant, and the ventilation should be maintained.
Sealed, this ancient wine ceremony has important cultural value and inheritance value.
Since people are born, there are always major events that accompany each other, such as the full moon, the first entrance examination, and the marriage ......Sealing the rich wine can integrate many emotions such as love, family affection, friendship and so on into the rich wine, and hand it over to time to be tempered and aged over the years, so as to bless a better life, look forward to a bright future, and commemorate the highlight moments.