Ci Ping He Zhuang – 20 year-old

Not too thick a texture for a rice wine – I think somewhat thinned by age. Nor is it too oxidative (though oxidation is generally considered a desirable characteristic in rice wines); it is more like an aged red wine than an Amontillado sherry. Remains quite sweet, plummy and nutty; coupled with the 15% alcohol the finish is quite port-like.

We had this back at Made in China in Beijing (along with their epic Peking Duck and the Beggar’s Chicken, which is clay-baked chicken; I was supplied with a hammer to smash apart the clay to get at the chicken, a more entertaining restaurant activity than putting on headphones to listen to seagulls at the Fat Duck). The wine was served hot, and (as last time) with a dried, sweetened and salted plum left in the tiny porcelain serving cups. N1 liked the plum last time, but this time, in a more distinguished wine, finds it highly objectionable; “It’s like using Puligny-Montrachet to make a spritzer!” Even after we have gotten rid of the plums and freshened our cups, the wine itself is intrinsically evocative of the salted/sweet plum character. (When we first saw these plums on sale in Hong Kong, we thought they were sweeties before realising they were really meant for cooking Chinese stews.)

When the wine cools, it has more of a salty tang, as I’d expect; overall, though, a sweeter rather than a more savoury rice wine.

Gue Yue Long Shan – 20 year-old

Pale, burnt amber colour. Smells strongly of burnt walnuts, with bitter citrus peel on the dry finish. There is an aftertaste faintly suggestive of plum. Not as thick or as salty as the other rice wines we’ve had; the age probably has something to do with that. The complexity rewards time; suggestions of ginger snap biscuits, and tea and coffee dregs. The finish becomes increasingly bitter, almost barky. I think I couldn’t distinguish this from a well-aged Amontillado.

We only drank this cold; it seems the Chinese only take their rice wine hot in winter, but by now we were in sultry Shanghai, in the restaurant Fu1088, which occupies all the floors of a beautifully tiled European style villa in the French Concession. Most of the dining is done in private rooms scattered upstairs and downstairs throughout the villa. With snooty waiting staff slipping into our room every so often, and a piano plunking away somewhere like the bar room piano in a western, and lilies on the mahogany sideboard, and stippled glass in the door window, I rather felt like I was having dinner in a BBC period drama.

Shao Xing – 10 year-old

Served hot (as is the custom with Chinese rice wines, at least in winter), this comes across as a delicate mix of soy and salted butter caramel. Unlike many of these aged rice wines, it doesn’t remind me of port.

The salty bite really comes out as it cools, making it rather more like Amontillado. Fragrant, subtle and complex with a very, very smooth finish. Lovely nutty aftertaste. My favourite of the various Chinese rice wines we had on this Asian trip.

Blanc de Lynch-Bages – 2006

Gold. Beeswax, yeasty citrus pith and peel (N1 says Buddha’s Fingers), and slightly smoky. Quite oaky for a Bordeaux Blanc, massive acidity, lengthy palate. Past the first flush of youth in that the Sémillon character has shot to fore, displacing the floral Sauvignon-driven character it’s supposed to display when it’s younger.    

95/100