How can I get a bottle of baijiu in Madison, WI?

March 10, 2013 1:50 PM

A friend and I are cooking a big Chinese meal for some friends, and ideally we'd like to have a bottle of baijiu to share (even more ideally, it would be something other than Moutai (most perfect would be a bottle of Fenjiu from Xinhuacun in Shanxi, but we recognize that that's unlikely)). Are there online liquor stores we could order from? Or a brick-and-mortar store reasonably close to Madison, WI?
posted by Vibrissa to Food & Drink (5 answers total)

If you don't get a better answer, I'd recommend asking the people at Yue-Wah or Midway if they know of somewhere to get it.
posted by SugarAndSass at 2:26 PM on March 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

You might try Trixies Liquor on East Wash or Steve's at Hilldale/westside.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 2:33 PM on March 10, 2013

Best answer: I'm not sure if you consider Chicago "reasonably close," but there's a Chinese liquor store in Chinatown -- China Place Liquor City (2105 S China Pl, between Princeton and Wells).
posted by eenagy at 3:54 PM on March 10, 2013

I realize this isn't the best match, but there's a traditional Hmong distiller in Door County who makes Yerlo, the Hmong rice spirit.

You can get it at Star Liquor. I'd recommend the Yerlo Reserve he makes, it's more expensive but goes down so smooth.
posted by rocketman at 8:21 AM on March 12, 2013

Response by poster: No luck with Trixies or Steve's. Fugu has bottles that you can drink in the restaurant, but we couldn't carry them out. We ended up drinking sorghum whiskey from Old Sugar, which is... not at all a close approximation, but good enough for us. :) I'll check out the place in Chinatown next time I'm in Chicago, though.
posted by Vibrissa at 7:53 AM on March 18, 2013