Shaohsing is a type of rice wine. Traditionally it's made entirely from glutinous rice and distillers yeast, aged in earthenware pots. Usually the longer the aging period, the darker the color.
However this wine in particular is slightly non-traditional. It's made both with a glutinous rice native to Taiwan, but also a mixture of wheat. This is an affordable wine, so the dark color is more likely owned to this mixture, rather than an extra long aging period.
ROOM TEMPERATURE
I really like this wine. The flavor of this wine is primarily that of very dark roasted caramel. The flavor is intense, and the taste of alcohol is very apparently the second strongest thing you can taste. This wine is primarily dry, but there is a hint of sweetness. Flavor profile is on the simplistic side, but not boring.
OTHER TEMPERATURES
The flavor was too intense if chilled, but when served at room temperature, or even heated, it really comes to life. I recommend heating to 110~120F depending on how well your container retains heat, or how quickly you intend to drink. In my opinion, flavor peaked around 100~105F. At this temperature a slight sweetness added complexity, aroma was more noticable, and some of the edge was taken off the intense roasted flavor.
Overall this is an excellent wine, and I want more of it
4/4
read on below for more information about heating wine...
HEATING THE WINE
This was my first experiment with heating alcohol after hearing it can be done with this wine, and it was a huge success, but also a learning experience.
In order to heat the wine, I simply followed the pot method in this video: https://youtu.be/FGMN2PF0usk
I simply used a pint glass and a meat thermometer. The thermometer worked fine, but the pint glass was less than optimal.
Problem #1.
If you heat your alcohol in a pint glass it will not maintain it's heat very long. I expected this, and you probably did too.
Problem #2.
At the higher temperatures (110~120F), the wine will give off an intense aroma and you need to be careful to inhale slowly or you can actually gag on the scent of alcohol. If you were drinking this using a smaller glass (such as those used in a tokkuri set), this should not be much of an issue.
By the way this stuff heats up just fine in a microwave, but it's more difficult to monitor the temperature. Additionally, since the container will not heat as much, the temperature will be maintained less long. It's quick though, heat ~5 seconds at a time, gauging by the temperature of the liquor itself (not the container) until you are comfortable with it.
Now I want a tokkuri set for a better hot liquor drinking experience :)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011J4NYSU
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