Chapter 4 Annual wine

In the distant Zhangmu River, the new year’s wine starts to be brewed at the beginning of winter. I like wine making. From soaking the glutinous rice, it seems to have entered a sweet journey of mood.Sometimes, this sweet journey of mood begins by searching for koji.Distiller's yeast is a round pink ball, not very regular, white, a little gray, and smaller than a table tennis ball. Distiller's yeast is the key substance for wine making.It is said that good koji can produce the most beautiful wine in the world, I believe.If the wine is poorly brewed, the villagers will say that the koji is very bad.The distiller's koji is bought at the fair in Zuo'an Town, often from the hands of old customers. The people who make the distiller's koji are the secret recipe passed down from the ancestors and will never be passed on to the outside world.When you buy good koji, you collect it carefully, and occasionally take it out and put it in a gourd ladle and put it in the sun to dry. There is a small beetle that likes to eat koji.

To make wine by steaming glutinous rice, my steamer is medium-sized, with a diameter of about 60 cm and a height of 80 cm. The steamed glutinous rice has the sinking aroma of glutinous rice, which is different from that of indica rice. Rice flavor is different.After the glutinous rice is steamed, use a pair of two-foot-long bamboo chopsticks to chop the rice into a large wooden barrel, pour cold water on it to disperse the rice, and prevent it from sticking to the rice balls, and then sprinkle the powdered wine koji on the In the rice, mix it well, and after some time, put the glutinous rice into a large water tank with a diameter of one meter, flatten it, use the pair of long bamboo chopsticks to poke many holes in the middle of the rice, and then use a piece of rice to make it Cover the water tank with the coir raincoat of the rain gear, then cover it with a wooden cover, and press a piece of stone mill on the wooden cover, and you're done.

The wine jar is placed near the bed in the bedroom, where the temperature is high, the wine jar was silent at first, every time I look at it before going to bed, but I can't remove the lid.After about ten days, lying on the cylinder head and sniffing carefully, there will be a faint aroma of wine, an elusive sweet and sour smell, which smells very good.Gradually the aroma of wine became stronger, and I would inadvertently smell the aroma of wine in my sleep. This day is handed over to wine, and I can feel its presence everywhere.I really like drinking rice wine. Drinking rice wine is as easy as drinking rice soup without learning.

On the twenty-third of the twelfth lunar month, it is the new year. My grandma said, the wine is ready, and I will make wine for you to drink tomorrow.In Zhangmuxi, you can also drink in the morning.I got up very early in the morning to watch my grandma get the wine.It is to use a big gourd ladle to scoop up a large ladle of fermented rice, put it into a rice bowl, then grab the fermented glutinous rice with both hands together and squeeze it vigorously to squeeze out all the wine pulp and throw away the lees.After repeating this process, the resulting liquor is put into a porcelain pot, and water is boiled in a large iron pot. The wine was also steaming, and the smell of wine filled the kitchen, and it floated to the dining room and outside the door, so that people passing by could smell it and shout loudly: Your family is drinking again.At this time, I picked up the porcelain pot, put it on the dining table, sifted the bowls full, and drank leisurely.

Take the first sip of wine, you have to blow it, the hot wine enters the mouth, it is extremely sweet, the taste of the wine is permeated with sweetness, this sweetness makes all the senses immersed in the sweet syrup, swallow the hot wine with a thud When you go down, you will feel that a section of intestines are hot.At this time, the strength of Fang Youjiu has risen, but it is still a faint strength, which seems to encourage people to continue drinking.I am small, and after drinking a bowl of hot wine, I gradually become lighter. I feel like I am floating upwards, floating and floating, as if I am going to fly.Smack your lips, the wine that has passed your lips will stick your lips, and there is only a hot sweetness in your heart.This is when I am about to get drunk, my cheeks heat up, I look in the mirror, it is red, and there is heat in my hands, the heat goes straight to the soles of my feet, and my whole body is warm, it is winter.

In Zhangmuxi, wine is not meant to be drunk with a meal during the Chinese New Year. It is meant to be drunk from the New Year’s Eve until spring sowing rice, that is, transplanting rice seedlings.But we are not greedy for drinking. We drink a small bowl, or half a bowl, for each meal. This small flat bowl is specially used for drinking. Li Bai also drinks this kind of wine. Distilled wine was invented later.New Year's Eve is really a kind of beauty, that is, there is wine and wine for meals, new clothes are worn, and firecrackers are set off.When I was young, my grandma bought me a small hanging firecracker every year. There were 100 pieces, and I was not too greedy. There were 100 pieces. Put one outside the door, it is lit with incense.At that time, it was also snowing in the south, and when it snowed, a bird with a gray back, a yellow belly, and a small white circle in its feathers would fly to the door, walk on the snow, or jump around on the fence of the vegetable garden.

On New Year's Eve, eating New Year's dinner is a long drinking process. There are too many dishes, but I am not hungry. Browse through them, drink the wine so delicately that you can walk lightly.There are also lights in the distant mountains, and the sound of loud firecrackers is heard everywhere. My house is also lit with the biggest lights, using two lights to illuminate the night.And wine, it illuminates my whole body, or life, rushing like a stream in my blood vessels.