Xitang Yellow Rice Wine

Xitang yellow rice wine is a Jiangnan brew from Jiashan's Xitang, made from glutinous rice, wheat and the region's clear water through traditional steps of soaking, steaming, vat fermentation, pressing, heat-sterilising and jar-ageing; it pours amber, mellow and gently sweet, with the huadiao, shanniang and Xitang 1618 lines the best known.

Xitang's brewing reaches back to the late Ming dynasty, flourishing on the water town's rich rice and easy river trade, and it stands alongside Shaoxing wine as a hallmark of Jiangnan yellow wine, carried on for over four centuries by time-honoured brands such as Xitang.

The wine is best drunk warm, heated gently in winter until just hot to the cup, ideally alongside local dishes such as braised trotter or Eight-Treasure Cake; it is also used as a cooking wine to lift flavours, a constant companion at the Jiangnan water-town table.

The mellow warmth of traditional ageing, its amber colour and the four-century name behind it are the marks of Xitang yellow wine.