The century-old Yilan Distillery stays young, as Yilan snack pioneers keep fermenting in daily life

Text and photos / Chang Ya-yun

(Continued from the previous article)Honglu wine is like an old friend to the people of Yilan, indispensable on all kinds of occasions in daily life. No wonder that of the total monthly sales of Honglu wine nationwide, Yilan residents alone account for 60 percent of the local support.

That glorious battle: the county wine chooses Honglu

But as times changed and consumer habits shifted, Honglu wine, which had once been discontinued in 1976 due to poor sales, always had a group of distillery employees who kept thinking of it and polishing its signboard. In 2006, coinciding with the inauguration of the newly elected county magistrate and mayor and the opening of the Xueshan Tunnel, the Yilan Distillery held the "County Wine Chooses Honglu" series of events in May and June of that year. Because Yilan has a county tree and a county flower, but no county wine, the Yilan Distillery turned Honglu wine into a candidate, and the only candidate, holding a "County Wine Chooses Honglu Referendum."

Yilan Is a Museum 08"The deep bond between the Yilan Distillery and Honglu wine, a century-old distillery breathing with the times

[References]

1. Zhuang Wensheng (2010) Honglu Wine and the Life of Yilan People. Paper presented at the "First International Symposium on Cultural Assets and Creativity", Fo Guang University, Yilan.
2. Jian Shuzhen (2011) "The Hometown of Red Yeast" - A Study on the Development of the Yilan Distillery. Master's thesis, Graduate Institute of Taiwan Culture, College of Humanities and Arts, National Taipei University of Education.