The historical site of “ancient cellar of Yuan Dynasty” owned by Lidu Winery in Jiangxi was recognized by liquor doctors as the source of Chinese distilled liquor.

On September 11, Gao Yuming, a renowned expert in China’s liquor industry, Wan Weicheng, a doctor of Chinese liquor culture, Secretary-general Yu Jinde and Deputy Secretary-general Chen Shuran of Jiangxi Food Industry Association, and Wen Xianguo, an archaeological expert in Jiangxi Province, as well as some leaders and liquor collectors in the industry came to the conclusion above by putting forward arguments from different angles in the “Seminar on the Origins of Chinese Liquor and Distilled Liquor” held in Lidu Town, Jinxian County, Nanchang City.

At the seminar, Wan Weicheng, known as “the first liquor doctor” in the Chinese liquor industry, said that Lidu is the source of Chinese liquor and distilled liquor. He illustrated his view from multiple angles:

In June 2002, while renovating and expanding its production plant, Lidu Liquor Co., Ltd. unearthed a number of cellars and wells from the Yuan Dynasty where distilled liquor was made by using cylinders for fermentation, and stoves, airing fields and distillation facilities from the Ming Dynasty, and more than 300 pieces of relics from the Southern Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, including more than 70 ceramic drinking vessels.

The brewery history of the historical site in Lidu can be traced back to the Yuan Dynasty and has sustained continuously through the Ming and Qing Dynasties, reflecting the characteristics, traditions and progress of the technology and production process of Chinese liquor industry. The excavated ruins of brewery workshop dating back to the Ming Dynasty had a complete set of supporting facilities and provided good archaeological evidence of the production process in which ancient liquor was made, from cooking of raw materials, fermenting and distilling.

The discovery of the cellar from Yuan Dynasty not only confirmed the record in Li Shizhen’s Compendium of Materia Medica with physical object --- “Liquor making is not an ancient technique but originated from the Yuan Dynasty”, but also pushed the history of producing distilling liquor by solid or semi-solid fermentation back to the Yuan Dynasty or even farther at least.

The unearthed 73 drinking vessels dating back to the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties and modern times generally took on a downsizing trend, reflecting the origin and the improvement and development of alcohol concentration of Chinese liquor.

Archaeologists found that the liquor workshop of Yuan Dynasty in Lidu is the earliest, most complete, most lasting, and most distinctive local ancient historical site of liquor making that offers the most relics, the best historical site to testify the birth, development and technological breakthroughs of distilled liquor in the Yuan Dynasty in China and even the world, and a wordless history book about Chinese liquor brewing. It is regarded as the “national treasure” in the Chinese liquor industry.