As the saying goes, "Good wine is brewed in three parts and stored in seven." "The freshly distilled brew has a spicy and unharmonious flavor taste, and it takes a long time to store and take a series of measures to mellow the taste. And in the process of storage, the choice of container is also crucial. In ancient times, most of the wine storage used clay jars and clay jars, but with the development of modern technology, most wine companies prefer to use stainless steel jars and glass jars. But you know what? There is such a wine, which is still used in the traditional container of 800 years ago, and it is also because of this container that it has created its unique aroma, this wine is known as Xifeng, one of the four famous Chinese wines, and the wine storage container it uses is called Jiuhai. At this time, some people will say, I understand drinking, but what is this sea of wine? And a mere wine storage container can also be called the secret of Xifeng wine and phoenix fragrance? As for the magic of the sea of wine, let me answer it for you.
Xifeng Liquor Sea has a history of more than 800 years, when the liquor industry was not developed, people mostly used pottery jars, clay pots and other small containers to store wine, but in the prosperous period of the liquor industry, small capacity wine storage containers could not meet people's needs, so the clever brewers used natural materials such as wattles, white cotton, tofu, egg whites and other natural materials to create a large wine storage container - Liquor Sea. In ancient times, people called the wine vessel with a large capacity as the wine sea. The Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi's "On the Flower Branch" has a description of "On the Flower Branch, Move the Sea of Wine, and Regret the Ming Dynasty if you are not drunk today".
Jiuhai is a cylindrical container with a diameter of two to two meters and a height of three meters, narrow at both ends and wide in the middle, simple and heavy, and can generally store five to six tons of wine. The production process of the sake sea is very complex, and the selection of raw materials and the production process are very exquisite, and the birth of each sake sea requires more than half a year of meticulous work by the fabricator. First of all, the vitex that grows more than 800 meters in the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains is used to compile the outer frame of the wine, and every autumn, the Xifeng winemakers will set off from Fengxiang, Shaanxi Province to the Qinling Mountains to personally select the perfect and uniform thickness of the vitex and transport them back in the middle of winter. Once the wattles are returned, the winemakers race against the clock to weave them into a wine basket while the water is still fresh and flexible. Once the basket is ready, they apply a special adhesive made of tofu and egg whites to the inside of the basket, then wrap it in fine calico cloth and, after the calico is dry, wrap it in hemp paper and ...... itIn this way, a layer of white cotton cloth, a layer of hemp paper is finely pasted, more than 100 layers of paste, and finally the materials such as vegetable oil and beeswax are coated and sealed according to a certain proportion, and after drying, a sea of wine is completed.
Sealing the altar in the beginning of spring, establishing a cellar in the beginning of summer, separating the altar in autumn, and breaking the sea in winter" is the best way to use the sea of wine summarized by Xifeng winemakers in the exploration of thousands of years. During the beginning of spring, everything recovers, and the first warm is still cold, at this time, sealing the altar can make the new wine form a tacit understanding with the sea of wine in the soft traces, and feel the change from cold to warm; At this time, building and opening the cellar can ensure that the wine can absorb the brilliance of heaven and earth to the greatest extent in the brewing process; The autumn equinox, the harvest time, after the alternation of seasons, the change of cold and warm, it is the best time to open the altar to take wine; At the beginning of winter, everything withers, and the sea of wine that is not stored for the time being will be repaired and preserved or a new sea of wine will be compiled, so that it will continue to play an important role in the years to come. In this way, as the seasons go by, the sea of wine is quiet, and the aroma of wine becomes stronger.
Due to the natural manufacturing raw materials and unique production process of Xifeng Liquor Sea, it presents a magical phenomenon of "filling wine without leakage, and filling water is exhausted". Someone once conducted a water storage experiment on Xifeng Liquor Sea, when the water was loaded into the liquor sea, the water soon seeped out, and when the liquor was stored, it could not leak a drop of wine. Later, it was found that when the wine is full, a gel film will be formed in the inner layer of the wine sea, which has the unique functions of leakage, impurity removal and alcoholization, which can ensure that the wine will not penetrate out on the one hand, and on the other hand, it can ensure that the wine and the outside world can "breathe". And this "breathing" is even more magical. The wine stored in the sea of wine is in harmony with nature through "breathing", communicating with heaven and earth, completing the process of removing impurities, and the various acids, esters, alcohols and other aromatic substances in the wine gradually reach a balance, ethanol and water molecules are closely combined, and dissolved into some long-chain fatty acids that are beneficial to the human body, so as to make the taste of the wine more mellow and refreshing, and have a long aftertaste.
Like this, which has been inherited for nearly a thousand years, the artifact of wine storage and the cultural "living fossil" of the liquor industry, the sea of liquor that can "breathe" is becoming more and more rare due to the cumbersome production process and high cost. Nowadays, the small wine sea of 10 catties, 20 catties, 30 catties, 50 catties and other specifications that can be seen on the market is also very expensive, with prices ranging from 9,000 to tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands. The Xifeng Distillery still stands hundreds of wine seas of different ages and volumes. It is understood that Xifeng Distillery has followed the wonderful method of storing wine in the sea since the Song Dynasty, and has never stopped exploring the wonderful effects of wine in the sea for thousands of years. It is precisely because of this that Xifeng Old Liquor has become the unique core element of Xifeng Liquor for 3,000 years of uninterrupted generational inheritance, and it is also a major progress and important component of Fengxiang Liquor production technology, which has played an extremely important role in Xifeng Liquor winning the International Gold Medal for nine times and winning the Chinese Famous Liquor for four consecutive times, and has played an extremely important role in establishing the fragrance type, creating a famous brand and increasing efficiency, and has immeasurable cultural value. In 2017, 12 Xifeng Old Liquor Seas were recognized as national general cultural relics, and the site of Xifeng Liquor Liquor Heritage as a whole was recognized as a national cultural relics protection unit.
After more than 1,000 years of baptism and the ingenuity inheritance of generations of Xifeng people, Xifeng Old Wine Sea is no longer a simple vessel for new wine and old maturity, it is a symbol and totem of Xifeng culture, and has always represented the glorious wine culture and exquisite winemaking skills of the land of Sanqin. In the future, Xifeng Liquor will not only continue to follow the ancient brewing process, but also continue to innovate in the inheritance, adding new vitality to the international development of Chinese liquor.