The goals of this study were to apply near-infrared (NIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy for the determination of routine quality parameters in Chinese rice wine, and compare the performance of the two spectroscopic methods. A total of 80 rice wine samples were measured by NIR and MIR spectroscopy. Calibration modes were established by three chemometric methods with full cross-validation. The result indicated that the performance of partial least squares regression models was the best. MIR method was found to be better than NIR for alcohol degree ( =0.942, RPD=4.3), total sugar ( =0.974, RPD=6.0), nonsugar solid ( =0.910, RPD=3.2) and total acid ( =0.854, RPD=2.6) content determination. On the other hand, NIR was a little superior for pH value ( =0.797, RPD=2.3) determination. The results provided useful information to understand the difference between the two spectroscopic methods and to determine the most suitable method for Chinese rice wine quality supervision. Practical Applications Both near-infrared (NIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy are very attractive techniques for nondestructive detection of quality of food products. The present study was to carry out a comparative study to evaluate NIR and MIR spectroscopy combined with chemometrics for the determination of routine parameters in rice wine, namely alcohol degree, total sugar, total acid, nonsugar solid and pH value, and to evaluate their efficiency and predictive power for unknown samples. This study could provide useful information to understand the difference between the two methods and to determine the most suitable method for the brewery industry.