The Wine Culture Chinese people began to make spirits with grains seven thousand years ago. Chinese wine culture has been playing a quite important role in Chinese people’s life for a long time. It is comparable with such daily necessities as rice, salt, oil and water. Generally speaking, the development of brewing technology in China falls into two stages. The first stage is natural fermentation which has lasted thousands of years. The second stage began only with the Qing Dynasty when the traditional fermentation underwent great changes due to the use of the Western technology, including micro biology and biochemistry . Wine has been considered as a special culture in China. Poor people and rich people both drink wine. To describe the excessive extravagance of the nobles, it was said: “wine fills a pool; meat forms a forest”; and “wine and meat decay inside the vermilion door”. Sending off an army on expedition or celebrating triumph, wedding, anniversary or alliance treaties signing ceremonies, wine is always present. On occasions of tomb sweeping, wine is sprinkled at the front and on the top of tombs in honor of the deceased. In ancient times, when people practiced divination, prayed for rainfall, or worshiped deities and ghosts, wine was often used to show reverence . Even when a prisoner was taken off to be executed, he was offered a bowl of wine. On all solemn occasions wine is not replaceable by tea. In the eyes of the Chinese people wine has a special place. Chinese drinking courtesies and customs were born almost at the same time as wine was invented. Some customs have survived until today. “Marriage wine feasts” have long been synonymous with weddings. To drink “marriage wine” means “going to attend a wedding”. At a wedding banquet, the new couple must propose toasts to the parents and guests. The newly weds must also drink “arm-crossed wine” meaning “a hundred years of happy marriage”. For a new baby, “month-old wine feasts” and “hundredth-day wine feasts” are popular banquets. When the baby is a month or one hundred days old, guests put gifts or wrap money inside a small red paper envelope called a “red packet”, for the child’s family. “Longevity wine feasts” is birthday feasts prepared for elders in the family. The fiftieth, sixtieth and seventieth birthdays are entitled to great birthday celebrations, which are usually celebrated by his or her children or grandchildren with bumper feasts. Attendees include family members and dear friends. “Beam-placed-on-the-roof wine feasts” and “moving-into-a-new-house wine feasts” originate in the countryside of China. Beams placed on the roof of the house is a remarkable process. Moving into a new house is also very important in one’s life. Feasts are unavoidable. There are varieties of reasons for the Chinese to hold wine feasts, such as a feast for opening a business, a division of dividends feast, and a farewell drinking dinner. Many famous Chinese wine of present day developed from ancient times-mainly from the Ming and the Qing dynasties. On the 1st National Wine Appraisal Conference of 1952, eight brands of famous Chinese wine were awarded a prize: Guizhou Maotai, Shanxi Fenjiu, Shaanxi Xifeng, Luzhou Laojiao, Shaoxing Jiafan, Red Rose Grape Wine, Weimeisi and Special Fine Brandy. (538 words)