Guilin Sanhua

Guilin Sanhua is a rice-aroma-style baijiu distillery. Situated in the fabled rocky landscape of Guilin, in the north of the coastal Guanxi province not far from the Guizhou border, it is the foremost exemplar of southeast China’s centuries-old qu made of rice and medicinal herbs. See xiao (“small”) qu. Unlike most baijiu distilleries, Guilin Sanhua steams its grains three times, ferments them in a semisolid state, and employs continuous distillation. Its premium spirits are aged in caves tucked into the side of limestone hills, or karst. The Chinese government founded Guilin Sanhua in 1952 from several smaller distilleries and named its products first among “small-qu liquors” in 1957.

See also rice-aroma-style baijiu.

Huang Faxin, David Tiande Cai, and Wai-Kit Nip. “Chinese Wines: Jiu.” In Handbook of Food Science, Technology, and Engineering, vol. 4, ed. Yiu H. Hui. Boca Raton, FL: CRC, 2005.

By: Derek Sandhaus