Seeing his expression, the waiter assumed he thought the wine was too expensive, so he pointed to another type of yellow wine and introduced it to him.
"This is Bai Nanchun, our shop's signature aged liquor. It's only 600 coins a pot. Would you like to try some?" the waiter continued to promote.
Zhao Xian nodded, and the waiter poured some more wine and handed it to the two of them. Zhao Cheng took the wine cup and drank it all in one gulp.
Zhao Xian took the Bai Nanchun and tasted it. The taste was very pure, but the flavor was not as good as Zhuangyuanhong, and the alcohol content was also not high, probably around ten degrees.
"Zhuangyuan Red Wine is better. Get me two jugs; I'll take them with me later," Zhao Xian instructed.
The waiter was overjoyed, thinking he had met a big customer today, and excitedly went over to get the wine to go.
"Don't rush, let me check the other wines, we can pack them all together later," Zhao Xian called to the waiter.
The waiter was noticeably more diligent at this point, and he led Zhao Xian and his companion to the area where rice wine was sold.
There are many varieties of rice wine, including rice wine made from rice, rice wine made from sorghum and millet, and even rice wine made from sweet potatoes.
Compared to yellow wine, these rice wines are not expensive, but ordinary people still cannot afford them. Sorghum rice wine is the most expensive, costing 120 wen per jin (500 grams), rice wine made from rice and millet costs 80 wen per jin, and sweet potato rice wine is the cheapest, costing 50 wen per jin.
The waiter poured some sorghum wine into a cup and offered it to the two men to taste.
Zhao Xian held the sorghum wine and examined it carefully. The wine was somewhat like rice soup, and he could clearly see that it contained a large number of sorghum grains.
Zhao Xian tasted it and found that the sorghum liquor tasted sweet and had a low alcohol content, probably around four or five degrees.
"The sorghum liquor tastes good, give me ten jin."
"Alright, distinguished guests, please come this way."
Zhao Xian followed the shop assistant to the fruit wine sales area. There were many varieties of fruit wine, including grape wine, plum wine, citrus wine, and even wild fruit wine. The prices of these fruit wines ranged from two hundred to eight hundred coins, and the overall price was more expensive than rice wine.
Zhao Xian tasted the wine, which cost about 800 coins per pound, and found that its alcohol content was around 7 or 8 degrees, which was slightly higher than that of rice wine.
Zhao Xian wasn't very interested in fruit wine, so he went to the next sales area, where only medicinal wines were sold.
Medicated wines are generally expensive. Take ginseng wine for example, which is made by fermenting ginseng and grains together. To facilitate preservation, most medicated wines have a relatively high alcohol content.
This ginseng wine is very expensive, costing five taels of silver per pot. Currently, their shop only has two pots of ginseng wine.
"Pack up the two jugs of ginseng wine; I'll take them with me," Zhao Xian instructed the waiter.
The shopkeeper was overjoyed. The two jugs of ginseng wine had been sitting in their shop for over two years, but they hadn't sold because of the high price and limited consumer spending in the county. He never expected that two big customers would come and buy them today.
The waiter quickly packed the wine and loaded it onto the carriage.
After paying the money, Zhao Xian got into the carriage and headed straight for the county government office.
Upon arriving at the county government office, Zhao Xian carried down the Zhuangyuan Red Wine and Ginseng Wine.
The yamen runners recognized Zhao Xian. They took a few steps forward and bowed to him.
"Young Master Zhao has come to the county government office to see the magistrate, hasn't he?"
Zhao Xian nodded and spoke.
"Zhao Xian has come to pay his respects to the magistrate. Please inform the officials of this matter."
"The magistrate is in the back hall. Please wait a moment, Young Master Zhao. We will go and inform him." The yamen runner dared not delay and hurried to the back hall to inform him.
Soon, the yamen runners came out from the back hall.
"The magistrate requests your presence; please follow me."
The two followed the yamen runners to the back hall, where Magistrate Cao rose to greet them.
"Greetings, Your Excellency Magistrate." Zhao Xian bowed to Magistrate Cao.
"Young Master Zhao, what brings you to the county office?" Magistrate Cao asked.
"I have come to disturb you, Magistrate, today, of course, about wine."
After Zhao Xian finished speaking, he placed the Bai Nanchun wine and ginseng wine on the table.
Magistrate Cao was also a connoisseur of wine and knew that these four jugs of wine were quite expensive, costing at least a dozen taels of silver. He did not know what Zhao Xian meant by "wine-related matters."
"Young Master Zhao, please feel free to give any instructions. If these wines were brought to me, please take them back with you."
Zhao Xian knew that Magistrate Cao was an honest and upright official who would not easily accept gifts from others.
"Your Excellency, I am planning to enter the liquor business. I am wondering what the government's policies are on this matter, so I have come to seek your advice."
It turns out that Zhao Xian wanted to start a wine business and came to learn about the relevant policies.
"Our dynasty is much more lenient towards people engaging in the wine business compared to the previous dynasty," Magistrate Cao began to explain.
"Currently, private businesses operating in the wine industry must obtain government approval. The government levies a 30% tax on wine businesses, which is 30% of their net profits."
"Does Young Master Zhao intend to open a restaurant to sell wine, or a shop to sell wine?"
"I plan to brew wine and then sell the produced wine," Zhao Xian said with a smile.
“You want to brew wine? That makes things a bit difficult.” Magistrate Cao frowned.
Zhao Xian's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that private brewing was not allowed in this dynasty? But he clearly saw people carrying wine barrels and selling rice wine on the street. Wasn't that rice wine also privately made?
I recently bought over 30,000 catties of barnyard grass. If private brewing is not allowed, this barnyard grass will become useless. Buying this barnyard grass cost me over 300 taels of silver, and my family worked for nothing for over 20 days.
Seeing that Zhao Xian remained silent, Magistrate Cao continued:
"Young Master Zhao may not know this, but brewing wine requires a lot of grain. However, our dynasty is facing a grain shortage. In order to protect grain, the court does not allow private individuals to brew wine with grain. If ordinary people have enough grain, they can use a small amount to brew wine."
I know that Young Master Zhao's business is very large. If he were to brew wine, it would likely require a large amount of grain, which would certainly not be permitted by the imperial court.
So that's what happened. Magistrate Cao's explanation was reasonable and made no mistake.
"Your Excellency, what if I brew wine without using grain?"
“Wine is the essence of grain. How can you brew wine without using grain?” Magistrate Cao asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Does Your Excellency know what millet is?"
“I was born into a poor family, and my family has been farmers for generations. How could I not know about weeds?” Magistrate Cao said with a smile.
"Does that millet count as grain?"
"Of course not."
"The wine I'm going to brew will be made entirely from millet, without using any grains at all."
Magistrate Cao was stunned. He had never heard of brewing wine from barnyard grass before and found it unbelievable.
“If Young Master Zhao uses millet to brew wine, it will naturally not be considered brewing wine with grain, and this county will certainly agree. However, this matter also needs to be reported to the Prefect, and I believe the Prefect will also agree to this method of brewing wine.”
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