This is the creation of wisdom, this is the renewal of legends.
Text: Huang Qingtao, senior researcher of the Brand Lab today
Photo: Zhao Yueyang Zhang Zhihong
At the end of 2021, a blockbuster Moutai wine new product launch conference is finally about to be unveiled. On the evening of December 29th, with the brand slogan of "Treasured Wine, Baifu Guzhen", the new upgraded version of 53% vol 500ml Guizhou Moutai Wine (Treasures) will be held in a workshop site in the mysterious Moutai Winemaking Industry Heritage Building Complex "The Source of Maojiu".
This place is particularly mysterious in the Moutai factory area - every building is carefully preserved. In 2013, it was approved and announced as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units, including the former site of the "Chengyi" burning house, the old site of the "Ronghe" burning house, the old site of the "Hengxing" burning house and the dry qu warehouse of the first area of the qu, the fermentation warehouse, the dry qu warehouse of the second area of the qu, the fermentation warehouse, the stone mill, and the fifth and eighth old wine warehouses of the lower wine warehouse.
Most of this heritage group is built in the style of small green tile roofs, either made of brick and stone or all-wood structures. On the ruins square, there are huge stones.
Today, the building is silent, but the voice is sometimes noisy, because the adjacent "Maojiu Ancient Cellar" wine-making workshop No. 2 production room and other places are still in production.
This is a living artifact and also has an echo of history.
The release of Guizhou Moutai Wine (Treasures) is the first time in the 70 years since Moutai established a factory to hold an unveiling ceremony for a new product here.
On this night, the Moutai winemaking industry heritage complex will be lit up by brilliant lights, and singers and dancers will awaken the sleeping masonry, tiles and dust.
The New Year is coming. Under the new time scale, the preparations for the debut of the new version of "Treasures" are in full swing, and a curtain is about to open.
The warmth of winter snow
Located in the northwest corner of Qianxi, Moutai Town, although it is cold, has not yet drifted snow.
Located at 106° 22' east longitude and 27° 51' north latitude, this section of the Chishui River Valley is known as the "oriental center of global spirits". Due to its special basin characteristics and subtropical humid plateau climate, it has laid a natural foundation for its suitable brewing of sauce-flavored liquor.
Qianren is good at brewing, and Yusi is prosperous.
The microbial environment that has been brewed over the centuries, and the most complex spirits brewing process in the world, has been passed down from generation to generation, making this land pregnant with huge sauce energy and heat.
Covering an area of 15.03 square kilometers, Moutai in Guizhou is not only the most important brand enterprise here, but also the largest spirits enterprise in the world.
The new version of "Treasures" was unveiled in the winter month. The ancient book "Lü's Spring and Autumn And Midwinter" records that "it is the moon also ... It is the great chieftain, the rice will be qi, the koji will be time, the cham will be clean, the water spring will be fragrant, the pottery will be good, the fire will be obtained, and the six things will be used together, and the great chief will supervise it, and there is no difference. At this time of the winter month, the "Great Chief" (the chief wine officer) should prepare the six things for brewing wine, not the bad pool, and prepare for the New Year's brew with sincere and solemn external and spiritual rituals.
This is not only an ancient wisdom, the Tao Fa is natural, it is obedient to heaven, and it also includes respect for the years - respecting the years with a sincere heart is an important reason why Chinese civilization has lasted for thousands of years and has lasted for thousands of years.
This kind of piety for the rotation of years is also deeply involved in the production order of Moutai, the "originator of sauce aroma", and the "new year is new".
Just this month, Moutai started its first round of production. After the grand Chongyang Festival, after sand removal, sand making, two steaming and two months of cellar fermentation, Moutai wine is gradually transformed into a "child-like" first round of sub-base wine with some starch from glutinous sorghum.
At 7:00 a.m. on December 21, the two chief officers of Moutai, Ding Xiongjun, secretary of the party committee and chairman of the board, and Li Jingren, deputy secretary of the party committee and general manager, went to the 23rd shift of the 25th workshop of Moutai liquor making, and together with the workers, carried out the work of "light, loose, thin, uniform, flat and accurate" in accordance with the technical requirements of "light, loose, thin, even, flat and accurate". When the first wine in the wine pool slowly flows out, Moutai wine begins its first preparation for the listing in the consumer's family after five years (as we all know, all Moutai base wines have to be aged and stored for five years after production to become the official "Moutai wine").
There is another kind of "new year out of the new". In the winter month, on the upcoming December 29th, the head leader of the global liquor industry with the largest market value and the world's first brand of spirits for many consecutive years will release a wine with improved quality and new packaging - 53% vol 500ml Guizhou Moutai wine (treasure).
Moutai is using a special way to pay tribute to time and those who dream of a beautiful new world on a snowy night.
The times make treasures, and the years breed the wine
The upcoming release of 53% vol 500ml Guizhou Moutai wine (treasures) - hereinafter referred to as "rare Moutai wine", has a deep origin. Just as time is both an instant and a paragraph, the treasure Moutai wine is first and foremost a bottle of "wine of the years".
There are two meanings here. First, the rare Moutai wine received its "birth certificate" in 1986. That year coincided with the 35th anniversary of the state-owned construction of the Moutai factory. After finally getting rid of 16 years of losses in 1978, Moutai has evolved from experience management to active management in production and operation in that fiery era of reform and opening up, and the quality of wine has become stable. More importantly, the dawn is that China will eventually get rid of the shackles of the planned economy and embark on the path of a market economy that is in line with globalization.
It is not just a coincidence that the Moutai people have keenly captured the precursors of the times at that time. In 1986, after a six-month trial and demonstration by Moutai craftsmen, a wine called "Rare Moutai Wine" was officially listed. This new product with the "1704" seal opened up the high-quality and high-end product route of Moutai wine, which together with our common ordinary Moutai wine constitute an important cascade in the history of Moutai product development.
The era of the birth of the precious Moutai wine is not only the years when the great Chinese society has just undergone a great turning point, but also the "labor and time" of the Moutai small society to catch up with the trend of the times. Company, corporation, QC, these new terms began to take root in this valley in the upper reaches of the red water.
Strictly in accordance with the rules of the brewing cycle carried out in Tianshi and adhering to the traditional brewing process, Moutai as a state-owned factory has gradually paid more attention to efficiency and efficiency. In 1982, they installed a new production line for their packaging workshop, and the packaging women, who were still a little unfamiliar with the large industrial era, began to adapt to the conveyor speed of the machinery.
On November 8, 1951, Moutai began its industrialization process from the era of handicraft workshops, but the biggest symbol of industrialization – electrification – did not really arrive until 1985. That year, Moutai's workshop was finally connected to the state grid, and the brightness of the times gradually covered this town that had long relied on people's backs.
It was also in that year that the Moutai people gathered their strength and shouted the slogan "I love Moutai and win glory for the country". A series of essay and singing competitions on this topic were held in the factory. After more than thirty years, Wang Xirong, a retired worker, still remembers the scene of winning the first prize in the singing competition and the prize money of 10 yuan.
It was not a simple spiritual and material reward, but a surging love for the winery and a warm response to the theme of the times. Later, "I love Moutai and win glory for the country" was changed to "love me Moutai and win glory for the country". The one-word adjustment highlights the flesh and blood feelings of "I" and "Moutai", regarding the factory as home, I am Moutai and the concept of honor community of "I am Moutai people" has been sublimated.
On the one hand, the Moutai people have linked a broader and more outgoing era in the rapid development, so that in 1987, the measurement unit of Export and Domestic Moutai Wine was changed from weight to capacity, and since then, the term of one pound and 500 grams has become 500ml. The Moutai people are changing their "container world". On the other hand, Moutai people have never forgotten the link between their products and history, that is its source, its origin, and its glory.
Precious people tell rare things, and treasures see precious feelings
Dropping the "1704" stamp on its first high-end wine bottle is a way for Moutai to pay tribute to its own history. According to the moutai distillery, one of the earliest moutai town roast houses, the "Weisheng roast house", began in 1704. This is used as the historical source of Moutai wine. This is the earlier historical origin of the three burning houses beyond "Chengyi", "Ronghe" and "Hengxing", which is also a retrospective of the aroma and taste of sauce and "Maoxiang".
Moutai people, putting history in their arms, embraced one of the most complex and simple winemaking philosophies in the world. To say that it is complicated is the brewing process of Moutai is the most complicated in the production of spirits in the world; to say that it is simple is the original intention of Moutai that has never changed, that is, to make a good bottle of wine.
Treasure Moutai wine, from the very beginning, is the philosophy of time, the value of time.
The precious Moutai wine, which starts from 2021, has been reborn in the winter month at the end of this year and the beginning of the year - new wine body design, new bottle packaging, renewing ourselves, and renewing our next year.
It is worth mentioning that from the very beginning, the rare Moutai wine not only integrates the brand of "time treasure", but also deeply embeds the personalized brand of "craftsman perfect wine". In 1986, the treasure Moutai wine, in addition to condensing the painstaking efforts of first-line masters and craftsmen, also invited the famous wine packaging designer Ma Xiong to preside over the packaging design. As soon as the "treasure" Moutai debuted, it won the "Asian Star" award, the highest award in Asian packaging design.
35 years on, this personalized style has been revitalized in the upcoming treasure Moutai wine. The new treasure Moutai wine is designed by a new generation of backbone craftsmen. The new treasure Moutai wine is not only the ultimate combination of Moutai mysterious craftsmanship and exquisite skills, but also a new understanding of the new generation of craftsmen on the new height and new realm of treasures, and a new thinking and new application of the "five craftsmen quality concept" with ingenuity, craftsmanship, craftsmanship, craftsmanship and craftsman as the core in the new era.
At the upcoming "Treasure Night" and the rare Moutai wine conference, new and old craftsmen will attend together, and will also accept souvenirs from the moutai chief officer to pay tribute.
Paying tribute to the past and future of time, paying tribute to the new "five craftsmen", this is the glorious moment of the precious Moutai wine, but also the background of moutai brilliant 70 years of endless life,—— they have never forgotten that what constitutes a history of the development of treasures and even the history of Moutai fission is the "craftsmen" who have forged ingenuity, craftsmanship, craftsmanship, and craftsmanship, including "their own people", as well as the "external wisdom" involved in the development of Moutai.
"Treasured wine, best of the best", bless your New Year
November 8, 2021, Moutai Group Conference Center. On that day, the "70 Years of Moutai Glory" celebration conference was held.
As an important part of the celebration, more than 500 Moutai people first visited the historical retrospective exhibition of "My Moutai, My Era" arranged on the second floor hallway. There, some of them found their work notebooks from many years ago, some found the honorary certificates they had obtained, some found themselves in the nursery, and many more found a certain "Moutai time" node in which they had participated... In this exhibition that takes time and history as people, history appears warm and real because it reflects the faces of many "people".
At the immediate celebration meeting, 109 veteran employees who "dedicated Moutai for 40 years" were commended, and an 87-year-old man named Zhang Yuanyong was presented with a special souvenir by Ding Xiongjun - a replica of the Moutai employee roster in the early days of the factory in 1951 - Zhang Yuanyong is the only one of the 39 employees who are currently alive.
▲ Ding Xiongjun (right) presents a replica of the roster to Mr. Zhang Yuanyong (left).
This is the continuation of a glorious era and the beginning of a new era. Guizhou Moutai Wine (Treasures), as the first new product released after the 70th birthday of Moutai State-owned Enterprise, will bring their cherished traditions of "Zhenren", "Zhenshi" and "Treasures" to the A1-O1 workshop of the National Brewing Industry Group of "The Source of Maojiu" at this moment of succession and opening up. In the ruins square, at the starting point of the spiritual source of Maotai, the spiritual exchange between a bottle of wine and a wine company with the world's first brand value was established, and it connected history and the future, and connected the New Year that you and I look forward to.
"Treasured wine, best of the best". Bless you with "treasures" and wish you a future for the New Year" that "bridges are strong and tunnels are bright".
A third-party perspective on Moutai //////
Editor-in-chief| Li Tie Editor| Xianling