Red rice wine is a scarlet tonic which is fragrant, mellow and tender sweet like a dessert wine. [Photo/xuexi.cn]
Red rice wine, a scarlet tonic which is fragrant, mellow and tender sweet like a dessert wine, is often portrayed as the modern-day moonshine of Wencheng, a county administered by Wenzhou in East China's Zhejiang province.
The homemade brew is made by fermenting red rice and glutinous rice with high-quality liquor.
The tonic, which has low alcohol content, also boasts health benefits, such as encouraging blood circulation and lowering blood pressure and cholesterol.
It is said that the tonic was originated from a rich family in Aoli village, Xikeng town in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and the early Republic of China (1911-49). The rich family had enough food and they used high-quality liquor as water to brew it. Later, the brewing technique was introduced to more rich families for self-drinking.
