The wine company I want to talk about today is more familiar to everyone, it is known as "China's first liquor factory" Shuijing Fang. It used to be one of the eight famous wines in China, Quanxing Daqu, a high-end brand created by all. Once launched, it quickly became the upstart of the mainland high-end liquor market.
But few people know that although Shuijingfang is full of "Chinese flavor" on its packaging, its bottles are full of Chinese elements, which are mistaken for national brands, and earn 4.6 billion yuan from China every year, which is actually a foreign-funded wine company. Its controlling shareholder is a Fortune 500 company from the United Kingdom and the world's largest liquor brand, Diageo.
The birth of Shuijingfang began with a serendipitous discovery of Quanxing Daqu
In 1999, when Quanxing renovated the kojiu production workshop in 1998, it was found that there were traces of ancient winemaking underground. So in 1999, several archaeological units jointly excavated it.
According to the research of many experts, this is a winery built in the Ming Dynasty, and it is also the oldest existing winery in the mainland. This excavation was also rated as "Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China in 1999".
At that time, Quanxing Daqu has always been a low-end liquor route. Other famous liquors have made efforts to high-end liquor products, building a deep "moat" for enterprises.
At this time, the launch of its own high-end products is really taking advantage of the time, location, people and people. Sure enough, once Shuijingfang was listed, it achieved great success with its unique taste, aroma and deep historical heritage, and even became the most expensive liquor sold in the country.
However, when Shuijingfang was in full swing, a "lion" from the Atlantic Ocean regarded it as its new "prey".
Diageo, the world's largest liquor company, owns a series of the world's top liquor brands, and has long coveted Chinese liquor companies.
However, at that time, foreign investment was not allowed to enter famous wine. Therefore, it took a roundabout approach, first acquiring a 49% stake in Quanxing Group. After two additional investments, he wholly controlled Quanxing Group, which indirectly controlled Shuijingfang.
So, with the blessing of foreign capital, how is the development of Shuijingfang?
Unfortunately, although Shuijingfang has a rich cultural heritage and is escorted by foreign capital, it has always been ranked after "Mao Wulu Yangfen" for many years, and it is difficult to step into the first echelon of Chinese liquor.
The reason is that although it is full of "medium taste" in packaging design, it is still too "foreign" in practice.
In order to achieve the goal of high-end brand, foreign capital has been burning money to engage in marketing, and the design of wine bottles is very exquisite, but the effect is not obvious. In addition, after Shuijingfang was acquired, it used foreign winemaking methods to "improve" baijiu, but it is clear that the Chinese people did not buy it.
But even so, judging from Shuijingfang's financial report in 2022, its revenue still exceeded 4.6 billion in a year when the performance was not satisfactory! It's about the same as Baiyunbian. It is a pity that the once famous Chinese wine has fallen to the ranks of third-tier brands.
It can be seen that foreign capital still does not understand Chinese liquor. Authentic Chinese liquor has always been in the brewing process, digging deep into the ancient brewing methods left by the ancestors, only in this way can we brew a good wine that meets the taste of the Chinese.
For example, Mutai Houdaojiu, a black horse in the Guizhou sauce wine industry in the past two years, is the best example. The distillery itself is a nearly 100-year-old distillery that produced base wines for many local distilleries in the early years.
Later, Feng Xiaoning, a national wine tasting master, became the actual helmsman of the winery. Using the technology accumulated over many years, the distillery adheres to the purest "Daqu Kunsha" brewing process, coupled with the strains imported from Moutai Distillery, to brew this pure sauce wine.
This wine is also the mellow, smooth, sweet and strong taste of traditional soy wine, not spicy when swallowed, warm and smooth like honey, and the aftertaste is full of wine aroma.
I think that in recent years, many newly rising sake companies as excellent as Mutai Hodo Sake have adhered to this "old-school" brewing process and achieved great success.
Finally, I would like to ask you which wine companies are controlled by foreign capital? Welcome to share.