Shaoxing Wine

[Anna N]

53 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

It arrived at my door about half an hour ago.

That’s impressive by anybody’s standards. 

[Dave the Cook]

In this part of the world (in the US for sure, but I'm guessing a good bit of the planet that's not east Asia), often in cookbooks or recipes, dry sherry is often suggested as a reasonable substitute if Shaoxing wine is not available. So, the question I can't believe no one has asked yet: is it?

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, Dave the Cook said:

In this part of the world (in the US for sure, but I'm guessing a good bit of the planet that's not east Asia), often in cookbooks or recipes, dry sherry is often suggested as a reasonable substitute if Shaoxing wine is not available. So, the question I can't believe no one has asked yet: is it?

 

I've been waiting for the question, too!

 

In my opinion, dry sherry is a poor substitute but can't think of a better one other than other Chinese cooking wines - 料酒 (liào jiǔ – literally, ‘ingredient wine’).

Edited October 12, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

[Katie Meadow]

2 hours ago, Dave the Cook said:

In this part of the world (in the US for sure, but I'm guessing a good bit of the planet that's not east Asia), often in cookbooks or recipes, dry sherry is often suggested as a reasonable substitute if Shaoxing wine is not available. So, the question I can't believe no one has asked yet: is it?

If you are making Chinese food at home  in the US and can't find Shaoxing wine you probably can't find most of the other ingredients in the recipe, either. And whatever dry sherry you come up with it will not be as affordable, that's for sure. I go through a bottle of Shaoxing in a New York minute. Not drinking it, of course.

[liuzhou]

45 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

If you are making Chinese food at home  in the US and can't find Shaoxing wine you probably can't find most of the other ingredients in the recipe, either. And whatever dry sherry you come up with it will not be as affordable, that's for sure. I go through a bottle of Shaoxing in a New York minute. Not drinking it, of course.

 

Absolutely.

 

If I had to sub dry sherry for Shaoxing, I'd go bankrupt very quickly! I get through a bottle of cooking grade in two to three weeks.

[Dave the Cook]

It depends on whether you're talking about Chinese-Chinese or American Chinese. If it's the former, it entails a two hour schlep to get ingredients (where I can find a number of Shaoxing wines to pick from). If it's the latter, the toughest thing to obtain (besides Shaoxing wine) is Sichuan peppercorns, which are easily found on the internets (can't get wine that way where I live).

 

But mainly, it was intellectual curiosity on my part. I wondered if the blithe advice was accurate or not. I suppose that the reason the substitution is widely accepted is because the results, even if not authentic, are still tasty.

[blue_dolphin]

15 minutes ago, Dave the Cook said:

But mainly, it was intellectual curiosity on my part. I wondered if the blithe advice was accurate or not. I suppose that the reason the substitution is widely accepted is because the results, even if not authentic, are still tasty.

I suspect that’s the case. A number of my friends from China attended colleges in small towns in the US in the '70s. As you can imagine, they had to make all sorts of substitutions in their cooking. The use of dry sherry was one they they thought was acceptable and better than the salted “cooking wines” commonly available in the US. Not for drunken chicken, but fine where it’s just a few tablespoons or so. 

[liuzhou]

8 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

A number of my friends from China attended colleges in small towns in the US in the '70s. As you can imagine, they had to make all sorts of substitutions in their cooking.

 

Indeed, that is what gave rise to American-Chinese cuisine* in the first place.

However, I just don't think that dry sherry is as close to Shaoxing as many writers seem to say. As for balsamic vinegar being a good substitute for Zhenjiang (Chinkiang in N. America) Vinegar, give me a break!

 

*And British-Chinese etc.

[Dave the Cook]

I was going to ask about Zhenjiang vinegar, but decided I probably knew what the general tone of the answer would be. (I was right.) And it was off-topic.

 

Not to prolong the discussion needlessly, but I don't recall anyone saying that dry sherry was "close" to Shaoxing. All I remember is writers saying it was an acceptable substitute. Perhaps it's splitting hairs, but I don't think those ideas mean the same thing.

[liuzhou]

3 hours ago, Dave the Cook said:

 

Not to prolong the discussion needlessly, but I don't recall anyone saying that dry sherry was "close" to Shaoxing.

 

I do not wish to unnecessarily prolong the discussion either, but you did ask and I was thinking of websites such as this of which there are plenty.

 

Quote

Some sources will tell you that mirin is a great Shaoxing wine substitute, and it will do in a pinch if you cut the sugar out of your recipe. A better, closer choice is dry sherry ...

 

https://www.thespruceeats.com/chinese-rice-wines-in-cooking-694392 My emphasis.

 

To be clear, I have nothing against substitutions. I have to do  it all the time with western foods. But I don't pretend I am replicating the dish as originally envisaged or even close.

 

[weinoo]

Not to prolong the discussion needlessly, but practically every Chinese cookbook I bought from the time when I took my first Chinese cooking class in Santa Barbara (that would be 76 -78), discusses the use of dry sherry as a sub.  Both in the discussion of ingredients, as well as in the recipes. To whit:

 

1972:

 

 

 

 

1977:

 

 

 

1988:

 

 

 

 

1988:

 

 

 

And the exalted one...2001:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 13, 2022 by weinoo (log)

[weinoo]

The issue back then (say 1972 - ??) was that unless you lived or could get to maybe New York City or San Francisco, no one was finding the real deal.

[liuzhou]

I don't think anyone was denying that a lot of writers recommend dry sherry as a substitute. The question was more about, should they? A matter of opinion. All I am saying is that I don't think it's a great substitute.

 

1972 was 50 years ago. Things have moved on a bit.

 

That said, I do think the salt is a big problem.

Edited October 13, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

When @FauxPasposted a pic of a bottle of Shaoxing containing caramel, I reached out to an friend who is a Chinese wine writer for clarification. She passed my query on to someone more deeply immersed in Shaoxing technicalities. We await his opinion.

 

In the meantime, my friend contacted me today to tell me to look out for a parcel she has sent me. I'm told this is the contents. Apparently, she has a few bottles lying around her office.

 

 

A nice 20-year old Shaoxing. Looking forward to tasting.

Edited October 13, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

[Dave the Cook]

17 hours ago, liuzhou said:

To be clear, I have nothing against substitutions. I have to do  it all the time with western foods. But I don't pretend I am replicating the dish as originally envisaged or even close.

 

You won't catch me defending thespruceeats.com very often, but in this case I think you're saying something other than what the author has written. She says that dry sherry is a better substitution for Shaoxing than mirin. That's not the same thing as saying that dry sherry is objectively close to Shaoxing, or even that it's a great choice. It's just (I think it's fair to say that it's her opinion) better than mirin.

[Dr. Teeth]

I’ve been trying to figure out Chinese cooking with mixed success for over two decades.    After about 15 years using Shaoxing wine from the grocery store for 15 years, I stumbled on a bunch of bottles at the state liquor, bought one and the quality of my food jumped considerably.    So I bought a couple more.   Jump forward.   State liquor store put all the Shaoxing on the discontinuation shelf and I bought them out.

 

About to run out.   1/4 bottle left in my last one.   Looking at the Asian grocery stores, there are a number of bottles, but frankly for the most part the labels look the same and I’m not sure what I’m looking at.   They are frankly very inexpensive, which is not reassuring.

 

Anybody have a reliable online source for high quality Shaoxing?   

[robinmetral]

On 10/10/2022 at 8:36 PM, liuzhou said:

I have never, ever seen a bottle of Shaoxing with a vintage year marked as with grape wines. They all simply give the fermentation times as listed in my second post above.

 

I also haven't seen bottles marked with the vintage year, but ceramic jars can be—I've seen some for sale this morning, right here in Shaoxing. I assume that this means that the wine is still aging, e.g. if you buy a 2020 Shaoxing and unseal the jar in 2040, that'll make it a 40 year old wine. Aging conditions certainly matter so these are probably geared toward serious drinkers. But glass bottles are marked with aging years, like whisky (except there's no vintage blending as far as I can tell).

[robinmetral]

On 10/11/2022 at 3:43 AM, blue_dolphin said:

I have 2 bottles.  This first one made me laugh when I read the label as it's from Taiwan - clearly not the real deal but I've been cooking with it.  

 

I don't think that this is actually meant to be a fake, it's just another variety of huangjiu that they named like Shaoxing  (nostalgia?). It's probably made using the same process. I visited the Yellow Wine Museum here in Shaoxing and they actually mention Taiwanese huangjiu as one of the better varieties besides Shaoxing (alongside Fujian and others).

 

On 10/13/2022 at 1:46 AM, liuzhou said:

In my opinion, dry sherry is a poor substitute but can't think of a better one other than other Chinese cooking wines - 料酒 (liào jiǔ – literally, ‘ingredient wine’).

 

Chinese Cooking Demystified mention other rice wines as alternatives, e.g. mijiu or sake. The latter might be easier to find in supermarkets abroad if there's only salty Shaoxing wine on offer. Their video about Shaoxing wine might be of interest to others here, since they also do a good job at explaining the difference between the four main types of Shaoxing wine (dry, semi-dry, semi-sweet and sweet).

 

[liuzhou]

On 5/13/2025 at 2:32 PM, robinmetral said:

I assume that this means that the wine is still aging, e.g. if you buy a 2020 Shaoxing and unseal the jar in 2040, that'll make it a 40 year old wine. Aging conditions certainly matter so these are probably geared toward serious drinkers.

 

Shaoxing wine is barrel aged. That aging usually stops when bottled of jarred for sale. Any maturing is minimal to non-existent, mainly because the wine is pasteurised. Some unpasteurised wine is sold, but is rare. Even then, the maturation is minimal.

 

So a 2020 Shaoxing kept for 20 years will be old, yes, but no better or more mature than is was 20 years earlier. It may even be unusable. Shaoxing can deteriorate or even go 'off'.     

 

 

Edited May 18 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

On 5/13/2025 at 3:21 PM, robinmetral said:

I don't think that this is actually meant to be a fake, it's just another variety of huangjiu that they named like Shaoxing 

 

Which makes it fake in China in legal terms. Under Chinese regulations, Shaoxing wine is a protected name and can only be used for wines made in Shaoxing. That bottle couldn't be sold legally here. That doesn't mean it's inferior but I do find it misleading. 

 

 

Edited May 18 by liuzhou (log)