Baijiu suggestions for CNY

[ouyangjun]

This year we are not traveling to my wife's hometown, but instead her parents are coming down to visit us in Shenzhen.  Normally when I go up north to 唐山河北 her father has our lunch and dinner drink all prepared... baijiu.  This year since we are having CNY at our place, I need to prepare the baijiu.  

 

Her parents are staying with us for 10 days, and I'm sure her dad and I will drink our share of bajiu, so I'm going to need a few bottles.  Looking to any baijiu experts on suggestions of what to pick up.

 

Here's what I have so far...

1.  One bottle of 贵州茅台 GuiZhou Maotai with a 2009 vintage.  This is hands down the best bottle I have exceeding 1500 RMB per bottle.  This will be drank on 初一 with handmade dumplings and other delicious food prepared by her parents.

2.  One bottle of 四特东方韵 SiTe DongFang Yun.  This is just a decent drinker coming in around 150 RMB a bottle.  

 

I'd like to pick up another bottle somehwre in between the above two price ranges.  Maybe something around 300 to 400 RMB.  One of my favorites in this price range is 汾酒 FenJiu, specifically the 20年陈酿汾酒, but I'd like to explore with some other suggestions in case anyone has any.  

 

I know a lot of people are thinking, "baijiu, ugh, I'd rather...", and trust me, when I first came to China and had to drink the stuff I felt the same.  But through the years after drinking enough of it, and when not doing the marathon baijiu drinking fest of trying to kill the person next to you with 干杯 ganbei, the taste can grow on you and you can develop an appreciation.  

 

I'm by no means a baijiu expert, and am looking for anyone with a bit more knowledge on the subject to lead me to a half decent purchase of something I may not have tried yet.

 

Cheers!

 

Note:  That 2009 vintage maotai was not bought with my own money, but was gifted to me by a very good 土豪朋友.

[michaelS]

I'd love to help, and will be interested to hear other people's suggestions - baijiu has also been growing on me a lot recently, but not enough to remember any brand names off the top of my head - i just know the bottles I like when I see them. I prefer the rice varieties, I think

 

This may give you some ideas: http://popupchinese.com/lessons/sinica/we-will-make-you-learn-to-love-baijiu

[ouyangjun]

@michaelS, that is a great podcast, I listened to it a year ago, and other than enjoying the podcast I don't recall any of the baijiu discussed.  It's a beautiful day here in southern China and you have motivated me to go for walk and relisten to the baijiu discussion.  Let's see if that brings on any ideas.

[ouyangjun]

Just a quick update... Today is the big day in China.  We drank our bottle of 2009 茅台 and it was delicious! The 茅台 is a 53度酒 (53% alcohol), but  it tastes nothing like 53%.  My wife's father guessed it was only 35%... Just a good showing on that bottle of how smooth something with such high alcohol can yield.  After we had that bottle we sipped on a few more glasses of 四特酒...  although the alcohol content was less than the 茅台 the difference in taste was significant.  The 茅台 tasted so smooth and "natural going down" with a nice balance of alcohol and sweetness that lets this bottle be a good sipper all night (despite it's 53% showing)... while on the other hand the the 四特酒 was no cheap bottle, but as soon as we got into that after the 茅台 the differences were very obvious.  The 四特酒 was a heck of a lot more 苦 and hot on throat.  The more drank of it the better it got, but for sure big differences between the two.

 

At the end of the day do I like 白酒 as much as 葡萄酒... no, but drinking 白酒 is one heck of a fun event!

 

Happy new years.

[Guest realmayo]

Remarkably coherent account, perhaps you didn't drink enough