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Rice wine is one of the oldest liquors in the world, and it is not only a type of wine native to China, but also a type of wine unique to China. In China's 4,000-year-old written history, rice wine reigned supreme until the end of the Qing Dynasty. Along with beer and wine, rice wine is known as the world's top three fermented wines, and Japanese sake is also borrowed from Chinese rice wine to a certain extent in terms of production technology.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, which lasted until the middle of the Qing Dynasty, rice wine was the mainstream liquor in both the north and the south. In the north, Shanxi, Shandong, and Hebei were all important production areas of rice wine, and there were also many rice wine distributions in Henan, Shaanxi and other places.
The influence of rice wine in the south is stronger, with Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions as the core, and Shaoxing rice wine is famous all over the country. Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hubei and other places are also more important production areas for rice wine, because of technological innovation, the sales of southern wine have gradually increased, and it has become the most mainstream rice wine in China.
Although rice wine is in decline quickly, as one of the oldest liquors in China, many schools of rice wine still exist. At present, there are three major schools of Chinese rice wine, one is the Jiangsu and Zhejiang schools centered on Shaoxing rice wine in Zhejiang; the second is the Hakka genre represented by Hakka rice wine in Fujian, southern Gansu, Guangdong and other places; The third is the Hubei school represented by Xiaogan rice wine.
In the north, only a few places still produce rice wine, such as traditional rice wine producing areas such as Jimo and Linyi in Shandong, Daizhou and Datong in Shanxi, and Hanzhong in Shaanxi.
The decline of rice wine and the rise of baijiu were carried out at the same time, which was also a game process between the two liquors for decades or even hundreds of years. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, as the Jin merchants spread all over the country, soju also blossomed in all directions along the country with the Jin merchants. We look at many well-known liquor companies, such as Wuliangye, Jiannanchun, Luzhou Laojiao, Gujing Gongjiu, Yanghe and other enterprises, have found a lot of ancient cellar pools in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Although soju has developed rapidly at this time, its influence at this time is still not as good as that of rice wine. At least until the end of the Qing Dynasty, rice wine was still the mainstream of Chinese society, and baijiu was not on the table of large families at that time. Baijiu and rice wine are two completely different types of liquor, baijiu belongs to distilled spirits, while rice wine, beer, and wine all belong to fermented liquors.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Chinese people called liquor soju, when the upper class mainly drank rice wine, and shochu led by Fenjiu was only a supporting role. In the first period, liquor gradually gained the upper hand in the game with rice wine, and the first main reason was the decrease in grain production. In fact, rice wine is not as good as soju in terms of economic value, because the production of rice wine costs more food and has a low alcohol content. Coupled with the large-scale cultivation of sorghum in the north, the north was the first to realize the overtaking of soju over rice wine.
The second is that the turbulent times of ** have given liquor a chance to overtake. At that time, there was a poem to describe the ** of rice wine and liquor, the price of rice wine is expensive, and the price of liquor is cheap. * During the period, the vast majority of the people were relatively poor, and although rice wine had a high status, it was not something that ordinary people could afford to drink. The ** low level of liquor is mainly the pastime of civilians such as peddlers and pawns, but its audience has surpassed that of rice wine.
During the Anti-Japanese War, the Kuomintang moved to Chongqing, and Shaoxing rice wine could not be normal because it was in the Japanese-occupied area. At this time, shochu in the southwest gradually became the best substitute, and shochu in the north, centered on Shanxi and Beijing-Tianjin, was also developing.
The decline of rice wine is due to many reasons, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the status of rice wine has plummeted, and it can no longer be compared with liquor. ** And for a long time after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the domestic food could not even be self-sufficient. Rice wine itself consumes more grain, and in addition, it is necessary to use staple foods such as wheat and rice as raw materials, so people have no food to eat, where can they get so much grain to make wine. Therefore, the production of rice wine has been greatly restricted, which has greatly reduced the output of rice wine.
After 1949, the supply of liquor was fully guaranteed, and the production mode also changed from workshop to industrial production, and the output and quality were greatly improved. Although the production of liquor also requires grain, the adjustability of liquor is much stronger than that of rice wine, and edible alcohol can be produced from various crops and then blended.
In the five wine appraisals of the last century, Baijiu won more than 70 national famous liquors and national excellent liquors. On the other hand, there are only two national famous liquors (Shaoxing Jiafan Liquor and Longyan Shenfang Liquor) and more than ten national excellent liquors, and its popularity and lotus production can no longer be the same as liquor.
In ancient China, although rice wine has always been the mainstream liquor, the production area of rice wine has always been more in the south and less in the north. The southern rice wine is based on Shaoxing rice wine in Zhejiang, and the northern rice wine is based on Jimo rice wine in Shandong. Rice wine used to be the mainstream liquor in China, but now it has become a niche liquor, and most of the main production and marketing areas are distributed in the southeast coastal area.
Most of the rice wine is named after the place of origin, and when you hear the name, you know that the place of origin is **. For example, the more famous ones are Shaoxing wine, Fangxian rice wine, Daizhou rice wine, Shaoxing wine, Jinhua wine, Danyang wine, Jiujiang sealed jar wine, Shandong Lanling wine, Jimo old wine, Henan double yellow wine, etc.
As the saying goes, "the train runs fast, it all depends on the headband", the decline of rice wine is not only reflected in the output and scope, even the performance of the leading enterprises of rice wine is very weak. In the rice wine industry, the more famous brands include Guyue Longshan, Tapai, Huiji Mountain, Shazhou Youhuang, Jimo Old Wine, Daughter Hong, Jinfeng Liquor (Shikumen, Hejiu) and so on.
There are 21 listed companies in the liquor industry, while there are only 3 listed companies in the rice wine industry (Guyue Longshan, Huijishan, Jinfeng Liquor). We all know that the leading enterprise of liquor is Kweichow Moutai, and the leading enterprise of rice wine is Guyue Longshan from Shaoxing. In 2022, Guyue Longshan's revenue will only be 16200 million, which is nothing to mention for Kweichow Moutai, whose performance has already exceeded 100 billion.
As the core production area of Chinese rice wine, Shaoxing has given birth to a number of well-known rice wine brands such as Guyue Longshan, Huiji Mountain, and Tower. In 2018, the Shaoxing Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government put forward the development goal of building China's rice wine capital and 100 billion industrial clusters, and Guyue Longshan also began to reshape its brand pattern. Among them, Guyue Longshan is the largest rice wine production and export enterprise in China. It has top-notch production process equipment and the only provincial rice wine technology center in China, with an annual production capacity of 130,000 tons.
In the first two years, when the popularity of soy sauce wine was rising. Guyue Longshan participated in the 104th National Sugar and Wine Fair in 2021, and launched his daughter red sauce wine in Chengdu. You must know that daughter red has always been synonymous with rice wine, and the launch of daughter red sauce wine also fully reflects that the form of the rice wine industry is not optimistic.
Nowadays, the market share of liquor in China exceeds 600 billion, while the share of rice wine is less than one-tenth of that of liquor. Nowadays, we have heard of very few rice wine brands, and some people may not have seen rice wine since they were young. At present, rice wine is mainly concentrated in Zhejiang, Fujian, Shanghai, southern Jiangsu and other places, and its influence is very limited.
Some people say that the current rice wine is not drinkable, and a lot of alcohol, caramel color, coloring, and so on are added to it. What I would say is that this is a common problem in the entire food industry, not a reason for the decline of rice wine. This kind of shooting yourself in the foot, I don't think most companies will do.
Although the health care effect of rice wine is far from being comparable to that of liquor, and the history and culture of rice wine is far beyond that of liquor, the frequent shrinkage of production and marketing areas is a reality that the rice wine industry has to face. And the situation of rice wine being expensive and white wine being cheap has also been completely reversed. In the past, liquor was a type of liquor that poor people could afford, but now hundreds or thousands of liquor abound on the market, and few people buy rice wine for dozens of yuan a bottle.
Where is the future way out of rice wine? How can rice wine still reproduce the majesty of the past?