Baijiu: Made in America

Said to be the only baijiu made entirely in the United States, Vinn Baijiu is made from brown rice in Portland, Oregon. The family patriarch, Phan Ly, brought his seven-generation-old recipe to the US when he moved his ethnically Chinese family from Vietnam in 1979. "Vinn" is the common middle name of his five children, who now run the business and produce mijiu (rice liquor), baijiu and vodka that's sold in the US Pacific Northwest. His daughter Michelle Ly talks about what it takes to sell baijiu in America.

Your alcohol level is 40 percent. Compared to about 55 percent in China, is that reduction key to appealing to Western drinkers?

We still don't know, but baijiu is already so unfamiliar to the Western drinkers. We thought that bringing the alcohol-by-volume down to match the market would make it much more palatable.