As early winter settles over the Sichuan Basin, the air at the foot of the Longmen Mountains turns crisp. Nourished by over 1,200 mm of annual rainfall, this landscape is famously lush. The city of Mianzhu itself is named for the bamboo that grows abundantly along the Mian River. At this time of year, locals look to the groves for a hidden seasonal gift: the winter bamboo shoot.
Better to eat without meat than live without bamboo.
— Su Shi
While the Song-dynasty scholar Su Shi famously praised bamboo over meat, in early winter Sichuan, the two find perfect harmony on the dining table. Foraging for winter shoots requires reading the forest floor, searching for faint cracks in the earth where the young shoots are quietly growing in the dark.
Patience Beneath the Earth
This reliance on the soil and the virtue of patience finds a natural parallel in the local distilling craft. At the Qifu distillery, strong-aroma baijiu is crafted through a similar process of quiet, subterranean transformation. A blend of five grains—sorghum, wheat, rice, glutinous rice, and corn—ferments for about two months in yellow-mud pits, securely covered by a red-grain cap. Inside these traditional pits, over a thousand microbe species work unseen.
Just as the bamboo shoot draws its crisp sweetness from the winter soil, the spirit gains its complex esters from the old pit mud. After fermentation, the grain is gently steamed in a traditional zeng still. Following the careful separation of heads, hearts, and tails, the spirit is left to rest in clay jars, allowing time to round out its character.
The Winter Table
When freshly unearthed bamboo shoots are stir-fried with rich Sichuan cured pork, they create a highly anticipated winter dish. The deep, savoury richness of the pork and the fresh umami of the bamboo call for a spirit of equal complexity.
A bottle of Bainian Qifu · 8 naturally belongs at such a table. Striking in its red porcelain bottle and gold-lettered gift box, this flagship spirit embodies the hearty warmth of the season. When poured, this 52% vol strong-aroma spirit offers a exceptionally smooth entry and a full pit aroma, finishing with a lingering, nutty, caramel-like sweetness.
Enjoyed in moderation, a small cup of Qifu baijiu perfectly cuts the richness of the cured meat while highlighting the delicate earthiness of the bamboo. It is a quiet dialogue between the mountain’s harvest and the distiller’s art—a simple, warming celebration of the season's arrival.
