Workers mix the mother mash with grains in the brewing facility of the Yisheng Winery. [Photo/Haimen Daily]

Wan Yueming, aged 63, has spent half a lifetime in the brewing facility of the Yisheng Winery in Haimen district, Nantong, Jiangsu province, exuding a faint aroma of the wine.

Yisheng wine comes in many varieties, all of which use Yisheng base wine as a base and add various herbal liquids. Wan's job is to brew the base wine.

By eight in the morning, Wan had already changed into his work clothes and started a busy new day with his coworkers.

The first step is to mix the mother mash with grains. This step is the most physically demanding, requiring workers to shovel out fermented mother mash from a 1.5-meter-deep pit and then mix it repeatedly with sorghum, wheat, and other grains until it is uniform.

Next, the mixture is sprinkled layer by layer into the distillation equipment. After a short while, the rich base wine is produced. Subsequently, these base wines will be stored in pottery jars. After three years or more, they will be opened again, and herbal ingredients such as tangerine peel, Buddha's hand, and saffron will be added to soak together for 90 days. The herbal liquid will then be mixed with the base wine in different proportions to produce different types of Yisheng wine.

The Yisheng brewing technique follows traditional procedures, manually brewed without mechanization, which means brewers must be very skilled.

In 2011, Yisheng wine was recognized as a Chinese time-honored brand and was included in the province's intangible cultural heritage protection list.

Wan is proud to be a practitioner of the Yisheng brewing technique. He says that what he brews is not just Yisheng wine but also his emotions. Yisheng wine encapsulates the flavor of Haimen and symbolizes his deep affection for the district.