The thing about Shaoxing wine is that, even though it’s so ubiquitous in Chinese recipes, it doesn’t always seem essential. People are constantly asking how to substitute it (to be fair, there are always people looking to substitute every single ingredient when you publish a recipe).

But I wanted to understand this ancient ingredient a little better. So I did some digging into why Shaoxing wine is used so widely in Chinese cooking, looking at its history, production, and how to choose a good one.

And as someone who can barely drink white/red wine, I never had any problem cooking with shaoxing wine!