Having grown up in Germany, a trip to an alcohol-producing plant would not have been my first choice for a travel destination. I remember school trips to local breweries. But this was different: The trip involved traveling to Guizhou, a beautiful, hilly province in southwestern China, and then an encounter with one of the most famous, if not well understood, liquor brands in the world - Moutai.
This is the premium brand of Chinese baijiu, a clear liquor responsible for one-third of all global alcohol sales. In China, hardly an official occasion happens without it, and it truly is a very special gift to give. I bought my first bottle of Moutai 20 years ago in London's Chinatown. As had been promised, it was an acquired taste and in the beginning not many of my friends and acquaintances shared my enthusiasm for it. Slowly but surely, that changed and today it has even aroused the strong interest of the international barkeeping guild and it is served up - often as a cocktail mixer - in many of the globe's trendiest cities.
I therefore jumped at the chance to visit its distillery and learn more about its background. With conspicuous advertising of baijiu in general and Moutai in particular, Guiyang airport leaves one in no doubt where one has landed: In China's baijiu country. The two-hour trip from Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province, to Renhuai city, in whose jurisdiction Maotai town lies, continued the theme, with numerous billboards praising baijiu dotting the highway as it cut through the picturesque Guizhou hills. And just before the city, there it was: A giant bottle of Moutai on a hill, the defining site of the region.
The next day would take us to the Kweichow Moutai distillery in Maotai, a 20-minute downhill bus ride from the modern city of Renhuai. Maotai is on the Chishui River, literally "Red River", because of its color due to the sediment concentration it carries. But the river is known by all as the "Beautiful Liquor River", as many distilleries have been set up on its banks. All claim, perhaps rightly so, that besides the local sorghum, it is the water from this river that adds a special bouquet to the distillates.
To me, the Chishui River valley seemed familiar, its topography not unlike the central Rhine Valley, which of course is also known for its alcoholic offerings - in its case, wine. The Chishui envelops Maotai, and large production facilities stand along its gentle slopes.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the town itself is home to many Moutai and tourist shops. Houses are well kept and contain strong local architectural traits - many of them are half-timbered. And while the Moutai facilities are certainly spacious, they do not weigh too heavily on the town.
Beginning our tour in the bottling and packaging halls gave an immediate impression of the scale of the operation. We were told that the plant has a daily output of 270,000 bottles, certainly an impressive figure. Especially so because the bottle labeling and packaging is still largely done by hand, thus giving the finished product its very special feel. The filling of the bottles, on the other hand, is done by state-of-the-art machinery.
Next came the fermentation halls and here one truly entered a lost world. The fermentation pits looked like they might have been dug a thousand years ago, with the same ancient processes and protocols at work. It became more obvious that this distillation process is an integral and deep-rooted part of Chinese history and culture. The distilling of spirits has been embedded in Chinese culture for thousands of years, preceding any European distillation efforts by several millennia. Chinese poetry, music and plays sing its praises and the Greek demi-god, inspirer of poets and drinker, Dionysus, easily finds his counterpart in the celebrated Tang poet, Li Bai. The smell of history wafts through the town and many old, abandoned open fermentation pits can still be seen.
After a refreshing and, for some, spirit-rich lunch we were met by three employees responsible for production processes, tasting and storage respectively. They spoke honestly of their routines, extensive training and the pride they felt in their roles in creating Moutai. Again, I was impressed and thought with pleasure about what I had seen and heard as we followed the Chishui River out of town.
Oh, and if anyone should think, the alcohol has impaired my judgement, I do not drink alcohol these days. What greatly impressed me nonetheless, perhaps especially so, was the mixture of dedicated staff, the amazing, ancient tradition of distillation and the modern apparatus of bottling lines, marketing, branding and distribution built around that tradition. The scope of it all was awe-inspiring and certainly an excellent example of how to marry Chinese intangible cultural heritage with the fruits of modern science. I will be back.
The writer is director of the communication program at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.
holger.briel@gmail.com
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A worker at Kweichow Moutai rakes a fermentation pit fi lled with local red clay. Jiang Dong / China Daily |
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Chishui River, which runs through Maotai, literally means 'Red River', because of its color due to the sediment concentration it carries. Miguel Villanueva / For China Dai |
(China Daily 07/08/2016 page6)
