The time-honored historic atmosphere and modern fresh breath encounter, integrate, and ferment each other, looking like a refreshing and comforting breeze. For Jimo Rice Wine, with a history of thousands of years, the traditional process has been strictly abided by to brew outstanding wines that can be handed down from generation to generation. It keeps pace with the times, seeks innovation on a regular basis. In this way, a lot of new connotations have been given to this time-honored brand.

    Brew classicals by “obeying 6 ancient standards and controlling 5 steps”

    The birth of wine is accidental. However, the enduring popularity of Jimo Rice Wine has its inevitability. Its keys to success rely on the insistence on the ancient brewing techniques and seeking for perfect product quality.

    “The brewing techniques of Jimo Rice Wine has been inherited for thousands of years. When we strictly follow the traditional brewing process ‘the 6 ancient standards’, we also have concluded the essence of the process flow of “Obey 6 ancient standards, Control 5 steps,” said Sun Juda, the curator of the Jimo Rice Wine Museum. He also told us that “obey 6 ancient standards” means that the millet must be uniform in size and quality, distiller’s yeast must be timely, water spring must be fresh, earthenware must be fine, yeast steeping and steaming must be clean and the firing agent must be proper, “control 5 steps” refer to millet steaming, saccharification, fermentation, squeezing and storing. If the quality is good or bad depends on very small details. It takes repeated practice and thorough research to obey ancient standards and control the steps proficiently.

    Because of the complexity of its terroir, water source and techniques, the Jimo Rice Wine brewing craftsmanship cannot be imitated. For Jimo rice wine staffs, the inheritance from masters to apprentices is a glorious and sacred historical mission. To promote and develop Jimo Rice Wine, an intangible cultural heritage, the enterprise built up the first professional yellow wine museum in north China in 2009. In 2013, the Jimo rice wine brewing techniques are listed into the directory of “provincial intangible cultural heritages”.

    The “Huangpu Military Academy” in north China rice wine industry

    “The success depends on 30% craftsmanship and 70% experience.” In the brewing industry, experience is the key to outstanding quality and talent can guarantee the experience.

    According to Han Jichen, the inheritor of the Jimo Rice Wine intangible cultural heritage, the craftsmen are different from ordinary workers in that they seek extreme perfection and are very detail-oriented. Han Jichen said: “The craftsmen of Jimo Rice Wine for generations treat quality as important as their lives and keep seeking extreme quality all the time.”

    To protect and inherit the traditional brewing craftsmanship of Jimo Rice Wine, Han Jichen has participated in formulating over 10 standards including local standards, industrial standards and national standards. As the only invited enterprise in the north rice wine industry, he has participated in compiling unified textbooks on senior rice wine brewer craftsmanship evaluation, which have played a very positive role in formulating various standards in rice wine industry, regulating industrial development, and fundamental research on rice wine in north China.

    Nowadays, Jimo Rice Wine has over 50 people with national certified professional and technical titles, 7 national senior brewers and sommeliers and over 30 senior vintages and technicians. Over 20 employees from the enterprises have been granted many honorable titles including top Qingdao and Jimo talents, Shandong chief provincial technicians, Shandong technicians with outstanding contributions, labor awards for enriching people and developing Shandong and labor models etc. Therefore, Jimo Rice Wine has been reputed as “the Huangpu Military Academy” in training talents in north China.

    The supply-side reform invigorates the industry

    The field of vision and mind are necessary conditions to build up a long-time and vibrant product brand.

    Under the negative circumstances including increasingly fierce competition and industrial depression, the Jimo Rice Wine takes the initiative to seek for changes, promote supply-side reform, improve self-innovation capability, and speed up the revitalization process.

    Jimo Rice Wine grasps firmly product innovation and technological innovation. In terms of product innovation, the Jimo Rice Wine product packaging have been turned into being simplistic, international and mass market-oriented, which can lower the production cost and benefit distributors and consumers. In addition, many functional products including dry Jimo rice wine are developed to meet the demands of diverse consumer groups.

    In terms of technological innovation, the Jimo Rice Wine strengthens independent innovation and production-college-institute cooperation. Many technological innovation projects have filled in the gaps including the design and transformation of new-type saccharifying machine, slot type fermentation, tank fermentation, brewing dry Jimo Rice Wine, and Jimo herbal tea with modern biological engineering. The new technological application and new product research and development can generate an annual average economic income of over 30 million yuan.