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During Old Stone Age Period, wild fruits
were a staple food. These contain much
natural sugar; and under the action of
microorganisms, the sugar easily turns
into alcohol when fermented. Animals’
milk contains protein and milk sugar that
likewise easily turns to alcohol. At the
same time, ancient hunters might have
chanced to get animal milk. The alcoholic
drink called lilao recorded in The Yellow
Emperor’s Cannon of Internal Medicine
is a kind of sweet milk and might be the
earliest milk wine.
Some ancient Chinese books have recorded
matters relating to fruit wine production
through the natural fermentation of fruit.
Kui Xin Za Zhi by Zhou Mi of the Song
Dynasty says that mountain pears stored
by local people in urns turned to alcohol.
The preface to Pu Tao Jiu Fu by Yuan Haowen
of the Yuan Dynasty says that a certain
person who lived near a mountain ran away
from the ravages of war and sought safety
in the mountains. In his house was a pile
of grapes stored in an urn. When fermented,
the grape juice turned to alcohol under
the action of the natural sugars of the
grapes.
This
article by Yang Tianqing and Daniel Kister.
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