My first time tasting BAIJIU! Xijiu Jiaocang 1988 Sauce Aroma Baijiu (习酒窖藏 1988酱香型白酒)

[@rodneychittenden6242]

Thanks for sharing the interesting baijiu tasting experienced. I visited and was hosted at a baijiu producer in the city of Jinan . Your description of the process made sense and is close to what I experienced. Yes the solid fermentstions are very unusual and fascinating. Clouds of steam at distillation time too. As for the product I have not been game to retry it since my visit, we had a formal banquet at the distillery, and as local etiquette demanded rather over did the 70%(v/v) baijiu provided as we went through the numerous toasts. Will never forget the experience.

[@RobynSmithPhD]

That's so great that you got to visit! I can imagine the smell of fermenting grains is so strong in baijiu distilleries. Toasting with 70% abv baijiu sounds intense! But what a great experience!

[@none_remaining]

I’m a simple them. I see Robyn talking about Baijiu and speaking duolingo mandarin, I click and I stay until the end.

[@none_remaining]

When you said “but it’s actually not fermented in 1988” I thought it was going to be a CNNP 7542 situation where I gotta memorize factory recipe codes. Spanish style rum age “statements” is somehow worse 😅!

[@RobynSmithPhD]

Thanks for sticking around for the whole video! There's no memorizing of codes, but it does feel similar to some rum age statements that list the oldest rum that was blended into the batch rather than the youngest (haha)

[@petewermecke9313]

Funny timing as I'm just starting to explore tasting & creating traditional Asian wines & spirits. Looking forward to more "different spirits" =]

[@RobynSmithPhD]

That's amazing! Have you made any batches yet?

[@petewermecke9313]

@@RobynSmithPhD Not yet, I've been researching with commercial examples, but I do have 30+lbs of sticky rice waiting in the wings. Trying to decide how to split up the experiment batches with Aspergillus, Rhizopus, amylases, etc. Might be an idea for one of your famous "Robin-deep-dives" with how the molds produces enzymes for saccharification?!

[@RobynSmithPhD]

@@petewermecke9313 that is a great idea for a deep dive!

[@differentspirits4157]

Yessss! I'm delighted, I kind of knew you'd dig this. 😂 And I'm super-impressed by the research and the Chinese!! For a next move in baijiu, I think heading west to Sichuan and strong aroma style is a good move. It's a very different style, but equally fun. Luzhou Laojiao is a personal favorite - Ming River, Derek Sandhaus' brand, is pretty widely available and very solid, but I kinda like the distillery's own bottlings a bit more.

[@RobynSmithPhD]

Thank you so much for sharing! This was right up my alley! Weird in all the right ways! And yes, I remember Luzhou Laojiao from your channel... I still need to grab that! Thanks again for sharing and the suggestions!!

[@desmondlau2850]

Always great to see another Baijiu review on the web. Very well done, and very good spoken Mandarin for a beginner! The two major extant styles of sauce aroma baijiu are the Mao style (represented by Moutai) and the Lang style (represented by Langjiu). My very superficial take on the style difference is that the Mao style has got a more acidic backbone (through the finish), whereas the Lang style is more earthy. As Scott mentioned, Luzhou Laojiao is the real deal. Their flagship brand, Guojiao 1573, bottles probably the best strong aroma baijiu (as thus the best baijiu =p) under $500. Yes, the international bottling of Guojiao is a tier above even the flying fairy Moutai at less than half the latter's price, IMO.

[@RobynSmithPhD]

Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it! I wonder how the lang and mao styles get their distinctive flavors... could it be just the microbial differences in their qu? Or is it the grains they use? It's such a fascinating spirit category! Thanks for the suggestion!

[@ONG4MXS]

No worry! You have pronounced correctly and in-depth knowledge on Chinese distilled wine 白酒 There many type of yeasts strain used and also fungi to breakdown the carbohydrate to glucose. Combination give the wine flavour

[@RobynSmithPhD]

Thanks so much!

[@richardchitty264]

You must have got the good stuff. No cloves, no car tyre burnout taste. Try making some at home using Angel yellow label yeast with steamed rice and wheat. If that is too funky add some boiled raisins near the end of fermentation. Good luck ;)

[@RobynSmithPhD]

Scott definitely sent me the good stuff! It would be so fun to try and make this at home! Thanks for the tips!

[@LongIslandMopars]

I drank a bunch of that during my 2 trips to China. Nasty stuff.

[@RobynSmithPhD]

Do you know which brands you tried? I'd like to avoid those if possible!

[@LongIslandMopars]

@RobynSmithPhD I drank so much of it I can't remember. 😂. All the bottle lettering was in Chinese. I remember it having a medicinal taste. We did shots of them. 🤢

[@RobynSmithPhD]

@ this seems like a common theme for anyone who has drank baijiu while visiting China. Taking shots of baijiu doesn’t sound pleasant at all 😝

[@LongIslandMopars]

@@RobynSmithPhD I imagined it to turpentine mixed with benzene and WD-40.....