Xiangyang Yellow Rice Wine 襄阳黄酒
Xiangyang Yellow Rice Wine is featured among the local specialties of Hubei.
Image notes
Resized for the web; the photo itself has not been edited.
Xiangyang Yellow Rice Wine (襄阳黄酒) includes milky fresh wine and an amber variety called difeng huangjiu (地封黄酒). In Xiangyang (襄阳), a bowl of the wine accompanies beef noodles; the fresh version is softly textured, lightly sweet and slightly sour.
How it is made
Writing in Xiangyang Daily (襄阳日报), Sun Xinzhi (孙新志) describes the linfan (淋饭) method: glutinous rice is soaked for a day, steamed, then rapidly cooled with cold well water. Starter is mixed in, and a hollow is made in the rice. After twenty-four hours, liquid released by the surrounding rice collects in this hollow.
Flavour and texture
Sun distinguishes the milky, gently sour-sweet fresh wine from difeng huangjiu, whose colour is bright amber. The latter receives starter twice and undergoes three rounds of fermentation before underground cellaring at a constant twenty degrees Celsius.
How it is eaten
Sun’s description of a Xiangyang breakfast pairs the wine with alkaline noodles, mung-bean sprouts and beef in a red broth. He also describes bowls of milky wine in the city’s morning restaurants.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-27. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.