“Đất Lạc Đạo lưu linh say ngất Rượu Nam bang đệ nhất là đây” (literally means visiting Lac Dao without enjoying a little wine means you have never been here). People from other countries who come to Lac Dao always have a funny saying "Drinking Lac Dao wine is easy to lose your way [...]...

“Đất Lạc Đạo lưu linh say ngất Rượu Nam bang đệ nhất là đây” (literally means visiting Lac Dao without enjoying a little wine means you have never been here). People from other countries who come to Lac Dao always have a funny saying "Drinking Lac Dao wine is easy to lose your way [...]...

That statement is not exaggerated. Because Lac Dao wine containssuch high volume of alcohol that a healthy people can faint after drinking a few cups. The interesting thing about drinking Lac Dao wine is that you can enjoy with all five senses. The eye sees the purity of the alcohol solution; the nose smells the sweet aroma, the tongue feels the pungent taste of the yeast that permeates into each blood vessel; the hand lifts the wine cup; the ear listens to good wishes. Since ancient times, the Confucianists considered wine asthe mean to entertain and relieve sadness.

Lac Dao people do the sophisticated process of wine distillation. Here, the traditional way of cooking wine is still kept, which is the "three-floor" cooking method.

On the contrary, when being cooked under this method, the wine product is not only more delicious but also safer. The structure of "threefloor" winemaking is as follows:

  – Floor1 at the bottom is a copper pot containing cooked rice with yeast

  – Floor 2 in the middle is a pot that is tightly attached to the copper pot having a small hole to place the tube to catch the wine (creating a space for the cooked rice to evaporate)

  – Floor3 above is a cold water pot that is tightly attached to the pot (so that the heat meets the cold to condense into alcohol and flow out)

To have a good batch of wine, the first step is choosing delicious glutinous rice, cooked into the sticky rice and scooped onto a piece of plastic or cloth. Let it cool, and then sprinkle the yeast evenly over it. Then, put it in a bamboo basket covered by a plastic piece. Then, bring all the sticky rice into the crock. Pour the water in, lid it on and put it in a cool place for about 10 days, then the mixturewill be distilled into alcohol. Cooking utensils also need to be clean and odor free. In order that the wine flows evenly, the cooking technique is the most important. If the fire is too big, wine will be sour. If the fire is too small, the wine will not burn evenly, and have a burnt taste; thereby, spoiling the batch of wine. The wine maker must be there to adjust and check the heat level.

Therefore, water on the 3rd floor must often be at cool temperature.Lac Dao wine has a high concentration, is fragrant and delicious due to not onlycooking technique but also fermentation technique. The way to make yeast of Lac Dao people can be summarized as follows: Mix three parts of sticky rice and seven parts of plain rice. Soak them overnight and then grind them into a powder. When the dough is condensed, mix cinnamon and star anise into it. Mix well, then spread a layer of appropriate rice husk on the floor and mold eachyeast cake and put them on.Depending on the weather, the mixture should be kept from 10 to 15 days. After that, the yeast crepes will be exposed on the roof of the kitchen to dry until they turn light like the fur and pop up into dust when being crushed.Lac Dao wine is the crystallization of the yeast of the land and human emotions. Raising a cup of Lac Dao wine soaked with chamomile in the fall and chatting with friends seem to erase all troubles of life. Only happiness with literature stays and poverty will be forgotten, just like the name Lac Dao that the predecessors gave to this land.

Nguồn trích dẫn: hungyentourism.com