About Kim Long wine village in the "four great wines" in the days before Tet

Wine making village over 200 years old

In mid-December 2024, we followed Highway 49C across the fields to enter Kim Long wine village, Hai Que commune, Hai Lang district, Quang Tri province. Along the small concrete road, people's wineries were burning all day to deliver Tet orders.

The gate to the famous Kim Long wine making village.

Nearly 70 years old, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Gai in Kim Long village is one of the people who holds the “secret” of making traditional yeast for her family to brew the famous “fine wine” here. Although her work is busy near the end of the year, Mrs. Gai still happily carries out the meticulous steps to produce the famous wine for generations.

While chatting, Mrs. Gai reached into the kitchen cupboard and took out some white yeast lumps and put them in a small mortar to pound until smooth, giving off a pleasant aroma.

“This yeast has 16 medicinal herbs that my great-grandfather and grandfather made and passed down, including galangal and eggplant stem to treat drafts that often spoil the yeast. The yeast is made and dried for two weeks before it can be used,” Ms. Gai shared.

“From fermenting to cooking is a week, fermenting for 5 days, then adding water and 2 more days, then putting it in the pot and putting it on the stove to cook wine. Each pot has 8 to 9 cans of rice, which is about 2kg of rice, the cooking time for each pot of wine on the stove is about 3 hours, each pot like that takes 1 to 1.2 liters of wine”, Ms. Gai said.

The unique feature of the traditional distilleries in Kim Long village is the copper distillery pot, on top of the pot is a wooden bucket made of wood joined together like a drum to put water in when cooking, inside this wooden bucket is a stainless steel pot placed face to face...

In addition to traditional white wine made from rice, mainly Khang Dan rice, Mrs. Gai's family and many households in Kim Long village now also produce "specialty" wine products made from red rice and fragrant sticky rice grown in the largest rice granary in the southern region of Quang Tri province.

Copper distillation pot and wooden drum placed on the distillation pot in Kim Long village.

The current selling price at wineries in Kim Long depends on the type. For example, rice wine is currently priced at 35,000 VND, sticky rice wine is 45,000 VND, and purple rice wine is 75,000 VND/liter.

Mr. Hoang Tan Thong, Chairman of Hai Que Commune People's Committee, shared that wine in Kim Long village is cooked using the water-based method. When heated, the steam will evaporate and condense when it meets the water in the pot, and then the drops of wine that form will flow out...

One of the factors that create the unique flavor of Kim Long wine is the water source, yeast, the experience of cooking wine by burning wood to keep the fire red and the humidity of the air in this Kim Long land. In particular, the people of the family that makes good wine here, when married to men from other places, also cook with the same recipe but it is not as clear and not as delicious as cooking here. Some people go back to the village to get water to cook but the wine is not as delicious...

Mr. Thong also said that according to the elders in the village, the traditional craft village of Kim Long wine in Hai Que commune appeared during the French colonial period. After attacking and occupying the capital city of Hue, occupying Vietnam, the French colonialists sent many geological exploration teams to find a place to establish a wine factory. After surveying many places, they decided to choose Kim Long village to establish a wine factory, formerly known as Xika wine of France.

When the wine is bottled, the bottles are soaked in cold water for a set period of time and then loaded onto boats to Hue along the Vinh Dinh canal. A small portion is consumed throughout Vietnam at that time, while the majority is loaded onto ships to France and from there exported around the world.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Gai shares about her family's traditional yeast that has been passed down in her family for many generations.

“Regarding the deliciousness of Kim Long wine, in Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi book, volume 8, the local products section commented that “Kim Long wine in Hai Lang, Quang Tri is the best”, this contributes to the solemnity and reputation of the once glorious position of Kim Long wine in the past” - Mr. Nguyen Huu Phuoc, Director of Kim Long Cooperative, Hai Que commune shared more.

Unfortunately, although Kim Long wine (Quang Tri) is rumored to be one of the "four great wines" among the people, this famous wine brand in Quang Tri is currently in a state of "a wandering wine", unable to register its trademark because someone else has used the Kim Long wine brand name to register the trademark...

Please return the famous wine brand of more than 200 years...

Mr. Hoang Tan Thong, Chairman of Hai Que Commune People's Committee, said that although the Kim Long wine brand has been famous for more than 200 years, the famous wine products of the villagers have not been registered for trademark or protected for exclusive brand rights, so the limited consumption of the product has caused great concern for the locality.

About 20 years ago, a business owner who was not from Kim Long village in Hai Lang district came to this famous wine-making village to mobilize Kim Long villagers to make wine for them to buy, bottle, label and sell on the market. This business later registered the Xika Kim Long wine brand and stopped buying wine made by Kim Long villagers.

After doing business for a while, this enterprise fell into difficulty and has been “closed” for many years, and for many years, the people of Kim Long village have not been able to register a trademark for their famous wine brand. People mainly sell to acquaintances in the province, Kim Long villagers who work far away, and those who have enjoyed Kim Long wine and ordered it, unable to set foot in supermarkets and the large market, and the selling price is not high.

The purple rice wine barrels have been fermented and are ready to be cooked.

"We are petitioning to get back the famous local wine brand but it has not been successful," said Mr. Thong.

Mr. Nguyen Van Phuoc, Director of Kim Long Cooperative, said that the Cooperative is planning a concentrated and specialized raw material production area to proactively brew traditional wine for the craft village.

According to Mr. Phuoc, currently in Kim Long village there are over 200 households making traditional wine. The average annual wine output is about 100,000 liters, using about 200 tons of rice as raw material and the above wine is sold for about 7-8 billion VND. In addition, local rice is also supplied to establishments making vermicelli, rice paper, etc.

In particular, Kim Long wine is initially brewed at 55-60 degrees, but after a few months it softens to 45 degrees and is very delicious, and you won't get a headache after drinking it.

“Usually, wine is kept for a long time and nowadays there are machines to remove aldehyde, but Kim Long village wine is cooked using the water method, evaporating and condensing, so the aldehyde has evaporated. Recently, interdisciplinary teams came to inspect and test for aldehyde after cooking, but there was almost none. We also brought the wine to two testing centers in Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue, both of which showed that the aldehyde content was almost zero,” said Mr. Phuoc.

The yeast is crushed finely and then sprinkled evenly over the rice on a sieve. Then, use chopsticks to continue mixing well before putting it into the fermentation tank.

These days, Mr. Phuoc and other people are busy going back and forth to choose bottle and label designs to register OCOP for Kim Long wine products in his village in time to sell them on the market during Tet.

According to Mr. Phuoc, the unit is proposing to the province and district to reclaim the brand and register the traditional Kim Long wine brand of the village.

“We are currently working on the collective brand of Kim Long traditional craft village wine. We have been recognized as a traditional craft village, but because we are stuck with the Xika Kim Long wine brand, which has been purchased and registered by a business, the brand we are working on is not yet available. Recently, we proposed Kim Long Hai Que wine or Kim Long village wine, but that was not possible either.

Without a brand, Kim Long wine village has only sold raw wine at low prices. Once we have a collective brand, the value of our traditional Kim Long wine will increase, and the selling price will be higher, and the market will be wider,” said Mr. Phuoc.

Preserving and promoting cultural traditions, complying with the regulation "if you drink alcohol - do not drive"

According to Mr. Hoang Tan Thong, Chairman of Hai Que Commune People's Committee, along with the "revival" of Kim Long traditional wine village, in recent years, the locality has always paid attention to preserving and promoting cultural beauty, including drinking alcohol, especially drinking alcohol - do not drive...

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/ve-lang-ruou-kim-long-trong-tu-dai-danh-tuu-nhung-ngay-can-tet-192241231160219267.htm