Moutai: The Story of China's Most Famous Spirit

A small town on a red river in Guizhou makes the most famous spirit in China. It has toasted presidents, become a symbol of status and turned into one of the most valuable drinks brands in the world. Here is why.

A town on a red river

Maotai (茅台) is a small town in the mountains of north-western Guizhou, on the banks of the Chishui (赤水), the "Red Water River", named for the colour it takes on during the rainy season, when it carries the red soil of the hills. The valley is hot, humid and enclosed. Its water, climate and the microbes that live in the air are considered impossible to replicate: even within the valley, distilleries a few kilometres apart make spirits that taste different.

The whole Chishui valley is sauce aroma country. Other famous distilleries, such as Langjiu and Xijiu, work along the same river.

Three distilleries become one

Distilling in Maotai goes back centuries, and the town was an important stop on the salt route between Sichuan and Guizhou. Between the 19th and the early 20th century, three private distilleries, Chengyi, Ronghe and Hengxing, refined the local style. From 1951 they were brought together to form Kweichow Moutai. (Kweichow is the old spelling of Guizhou.)

A year of work

Moutai is the reference for sauce aroma baijiu, the most laborious style of all. The process follows the seasons:

• **Early summer:** around the Dragon Boat Festival, wheat qu is made at high temperature and trodden into bricks.
• **Autumn:** around the Double Ninth Festival, the local red sorghum goes in. A second load of sorghum follows a few weeks later.
• **The following months:** the same grains are steamed nine times, fermented eight times and distilled seven times over a full year. Each distillation gives a spirit with a different character.
• **Then years:** the spirits rest separately in clay jars, before the blenders combine many batches and ages into the final spirit.

What it tastes like

Sauce aroma takes its name from its savoury note, reminiscent of soy sauce. Expect roasted grain, dried fruit, mushroom, earth and a long, warm finish that lingers in the empty glass. It is intense, complex and not easy at first: most drinkers learn to love it.

A symbol

Moutai has become more than a spirit. It was famously served at the banquet for US President Richard Nixon's visit to Beijing in 1972, and it still appears at state banquets. It is collected, gifted and followed like a luxury brand, and old bottles are traded like fine wine. For many Chinese, it is the taste of the most important occasions.

Is it the only sauce aroma?

No. Sauce aroma is made by many distilleries in Guizhou and Sichuan, at every level. Moutai is the reference, but exploring other sauce aroma baijiu is the best way to understand the style.

In one sentence

Moutai is the savoury, year-long masterpiece of a river town in Guizhou, and China's most famous spirit.