Shaoxing wine

Shaoxing wine is a Chinese rice wine used for drinking and cooking. The wine is named after a famous winemaking city of the same name in China. Shaoxing rice wine is made from brown glutinous rice and commonly aged for 10 or more years. Shaoxing wine has a mild flavor that tastes faintly like dry sherry.  The alcohol content of this wine is about 17 to 18%.  The brand shown above, Pagoda is 17% alcohol.  Once opened you can store the wine in your pantry.

There are "cooking Shaoxing wines," but just as with other "cooking wines" or "cooking Sherry," they tend to be quite inferior and most always contain salt.

Substitute For Shaoxing Wine

If you don't have Shaoxing Wine you can substitute:

• Use equal amounts of Dry Sherry - which is our top choice for a substitute for several reasons. First, it's easy to find in most grocery stores that sell alcohol or any liquor store. Also, there are inexpensive options (don't get the very cheapest), so you don't have to break the bank. Most importantly, the flavor is very similar (sherry is sweeter and "nuttier".) Make sure to select a dry rather than sweet sherry. And, as a bonus, sherry can be used in many recipes. One of our favorites is to cook small button mushrooms with a little butter, then add sherry and continue to cook until the sherry thickens. These are delicious! Last but not least, you can sip sherry too!
• OR - Dry Vermouth can also be substituted, but in general, it is less versatile for other uses unless you use it for cocktails.
• OR - Alternately use Japanese Sake rice wine, which will be sweeter and lacks the "nutty" flavor, but if you have it in your pantry, it will be a decent substitute.
• OR - If by chance you have a bottle of cooking sherry or cooking Shaoxing wine you can use it but you may want to adjust the salt in your recipe.  If you have to go out and buy something we don't recommend this product.

Where To Buy Shaoxing Wine

Depending on where you live it's most likely you won't find this in your neighborhood grocery store.  Do look for it in any Asian grocer.  You can also purchase this rice wine at Amazon: Shaoxing Wine.