1993 bottle of 二鍋頭酒

[Tomsima]

my wife works in a teahouse and naturally the topic of foreign husband often comes up in conversation with customers. well a few days ago a customer who appears to be some sort of 白酒 collector came into the teahouse. upon discovering 外國朋友喜歡喝白酒 apparently became visibly excited and insisted on bringing me a bottle of 白酒 from his house.

well today he did, and I was pretty amazed to find it is a bottle of 二鍋頭 from a crate he has from 1993! now although I like to have a drink of the 'white wine' every now and again at the old roadside barbecue (especially if everyone is doing their 方言 thing and I need to get in my 土話 zone), I'm definitely no expert 白酒 drinker. So I thought it would be interesting to stick up a few pics of the bottle and see what people have to say. are there any 白酒 aficionados out there on the forums?

 

'is this genuine?' 'if I drink this will i die?' and answers to similar questions welcome!

[Jim]

Ideal if you have any oily bearings need cleaning I'd say.

[DavyJonesLocker]

Would make a nice present for someone. I daresay it will keep it's 'distinct" flavor given its made from a grain (Sorghum) and not a grape or rice.

 

Depends on how well it was distilled I guess.

 

It's probably drink it but that's not a recommendation haha

[somethingfunny]

I can't imagine that 二锅头 is the kind of drink which improves with age.

 

Still a cool thing to have though.

[Publius]

二鍋頭當然紅星是正宗。現在還有個牛欄山牌。麗華什麼的聽都沒聽說過。

紅星酒廠以前就在大北窯（國貿橋）往東。一出三環就能聞到一股酒糟味。

對了，北京土話管二鍋頭叫二得(dei1)子。下回可以和你的酒友們顯白顯白。

[roddy]

For all the poor people who can't read that:

 

For Ergoutou, Red Star's the real stuff. There's a Niulanshan brand now as well. Never heard of Lihua or anything.

The Red Star factory used to be east of Dabeiyao (Guomao). As soon as you crossed the third ring you'd smell it. 

Oh, and Beijingers call ergoutou dēizi - you can use that to show off to your drinking buddies next time...

[Tomsima]

Just as a little follow up on this, cracked open the bottle this evening with a good dinner and 九品芝麻官, HK slapstick movies and vintage baijiu officially a recommended combination.

 

Happy to say this baijiu is actually not bad at all, it's definitely got a kick to it like a supermarket bottle of vodka, but pleased to say it doesn't have any 'xiang' flavour which I personally can't handle. All in all, there is some good baijiu out there, if I find/get given more I'll post a follow up

[Shelley]

Wow, brave person

 

Not sure I would have tried it, don't drink, but still it would have been scary to try.

[DavyJonesLocker]

Good to know. I have had tried several (and even opened) bottles whiskeys a decade after purchase date. They have all been fine surprisingly! 

Usually supplied from aging relatives who keep bottles for the odd visitor. 

 

Grain based alcohol seem to keep with age if stored correctly. Grape based such as sherry and Port are a different story!