On the evening of April 27, Moutai in Guizhou (600519. SH) disclosed the first quarter report of 2021: achieved operating income of 27.271 billion yuan, an increase of 11.74% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 13.954 billion yuan, an increase of 6.57% year-on-year, the growth rate hit a new low in the past six years. Affected by this, on April 28, the opening share price of Moutai in Guizhou fell by more than 4%.
Huge economic volumes fall on small towns with 189.25 square kilometers of land. But this economic structure is like an inverted pyramid, and the wine alone supports most of the town of Moutai, taking off and shaking at the same time. As one winery owner put it: "You may think it's ridiculous, but it's a remote place, and we only have wine." ”
Article/Reporter Nie Yangxin Han Ruxue
From Guiyang, Zunyi, Luzhou, Yibin
Intern reporter Guo Wanying Fang Yuan
Edited/Jian Huang [email protected]
Again, several smelling cups lined up in front of us, as if to test some kind of taste. The liquor store clerk waited aside and said, "The wine is not worth the price, you have to taste it yourself, and everyone's taste and preferences are different." ”
The price of wine in Moutai Town, in addition to the big brand has no room for negotiation, loose wine can be discussed, the price refers to the benchmark of sauce-flavored liquor Feitian Moutai wine scheduled, the more similar the taste, the higher the asking price. You ask whether it is worth it or not, and the other party only asks you whether you have drunk the "taste of life" from the wine.
Every day, countless people face the same scene in Moutai Town, handing over decision-making power to the taste buds. When the taste buds can't tell, all kinds of myths and stories appear, the official cellar of the Song Dynasty, the inheritance of more than ten generations, the wine of the fairies, the mysterious brewing belt of 7.5 square kilometers... True and false stitch together the picture of the winemaking town, the outside world has how many magical questions there are, how many mysterious answers can be supplied here.
The story of wine and people is told here from a different perspective, where wine can solve the problems of survival in the world, and it may also make people fall into the obsession of chasing money. Everyone in the midst of the sauce and wine boom is imagining tomorrow's grandeur in today's hustle and bustle of interests.
"Can't photograph big brother on the beach"
The Renwang Expressway from Zunyi to Renhuai is laid between the mountains. The green mountains are large or small, and the altitude is not high, because there are so many that they almost have no name. The locals told us that they only know the name of the main peak, because the mountain peak is tall, quite a bit of a thick cloud, it was named Yunmiao Mountain, we later checked the data and found that it was actually called Yunqi Mountain.
Every few times on a few hills, you can see a large billboard on the ridge. Of the ten, eight are winery advertisements, a real estate advertisement, and a red tourism promotional copy. When a large sculpture in the shape of a wine altar appeared on the side of the road, we knew that we had entered the renhuai land.
The highway exit is close to the city of Renhuai, and the highway continues from here to Maotai Town, which is about half an hour's drive. This section of the road, together with the Renwang Expressway, was known as the Moutai Expressway when it opened to traffic in 2009. When there are dense liquor stores on both sides of the road, the terrain begins to go all the way down, and after a few turns along the mountain and a few slopes, the town hidden deep in the mountains and valleys of northwest Guizhou reveals its appearance.
The town of Moutai is divided in two by the Chishui River, which is lined with greenery and pedestrian belts, roads only two cars wide, and then rows of closely connected buildings, paved on the upper floors according to the mountain. The two bridges connect the hedong and the west. One is a road bridge in the center of the town, on each side of the bridge deck stands a half-moon shaped red steel column, from a distance to look like two rainbows, the bridge is also named after this. Two kilometers downstream, there is also a pedestrian wooden bridge, the outer sides of the railing are decorated with dozens of red stars, one side of the bridge is the Sidu Chishui Memorial Hall, and the other side is the 1915 Square commemorating the honor of Moutai Wine winning the "World Famous Wine".
The town of Moutai at night Photo/Visual China
Baijiu and red culture are the two major symbols of Maotai Town, but according to the observation of Master Long, the driver of Didi, the people who come here are not far from the liquor business, so many years he has only pulled a guest who came for the Sidu Chishui Memorial Hall to accompany the child to do social research when applying for study abroad, "saying that it can give extra points." ”
The town's street lamps are made in the shape of brass lords, and a huge statue of a broken wine altar is placed in the square. At night, dozens of winery signs glow on the roofs of various buildings, illuminating the entire canyon and immersing themselves in it, as if they were coming to a paradise for wine. You can't escape from this atmosphere because the air is full of the smell of distiller's lees, mixed with the aroma of grain and the sour smell of food.
The golden wine urn statue in 1915 Square of Moutai Town Photo/ Reporter Fang Yingzhong
In addition to restaurants and hotels on the street, there are liquor stores, and the signboards are written with the names of each distillery, and the small print at the bottom is: retail, base wine, customization, OEM... Outsiders are easy to identify here, and the people who walk slowly on the street and look around are eight achievements. The clerks waiting at the entrance of the store would come up and take them in for a drink, first placing a row of smelling cups and then telling their own winemaking stories.
Master Long is more than fifty years old, has been a driver, from driving a large truck to now driving a small car to carry passengers. His work card was hung on the rearview mirror of the car, and the job column was not written as a driver, but as a sales manager of a liquor industry in Guizhou. Seeing us staring at this work card, he smiled and said, "Renhuai's wine business is the participation of the whole people." Master Long's sales target is the "people who have a relationship" who ride in his car. In 2020, he sold hundreds of boxes. "I'm a platform-certified driver, and I certainly have a little more credibility than other sales."
People who buy wine here at Master Dragon usually only buy one or two cases. If the guests are willing to buy, he will send them to the winery warehouse for free. The winery he was in did not have a store, and between the words, he was a bit disdainful of those wineries that had stores, "There are stores that pit you, originally only one or two hundred, put the store to give you a price of six hundred, you don't understand it and won't bargain." His wine is divided into six grades, from more than eighty to more than three hundred yuan a pound, and the best one taste is "close to eighty percent of Moutai wine."
Similar words we heard repeatedly in Moutai Town, the sincere winery owner will say that "Moutai" is difficult to surpass, "we can't say that it is better than Moutai, we can't shoot the big brother on the beach, this is the rule of the industry, but also the rules of being a person", but most sales will say "We and Moutai are the same process", "Our wine is maohai flavor", and more exaggerated is "our wine is better than Moutai". Whether it is deliberately looking for gimmicks or sincere comparisons, "Maotai" is a presence that cannot be avoided by liquor sellers in the town.
At a business wine banquet we participated in, the owner of a certain distillery who sat in the main seat drank the wind and water and said: "Moutai is the national liquor, I am the provincial liquor, (can not compare) it is normal." ”
"Independent Kingdom"
There is no document specifically how Moutai Town became the liquor country it is today. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Moutai was famous for being the port of Sichuan salt into Qian. Guizhou does not produce salt, most of the needs come from Zigong, Sichuan, one of the routes of salt transportation is from the artesian well of Zigong to the Chishui River waterway transportation, the end of the waterway is in Maotai Village, after which they are manually carried out of the mountains and transported to Zunyi, Guiyang and other places.
The modern poet Luo Jiansheng wrote in "Negative Salt Sigh" that the local men, women, and children are busy transporting salt, except for transporting salt, they have no other livelihood, they want to farm but "stand on the cone and have no land", Maotai town has little land, since ancient times, it is "eight mountains and one water and one field", want to do business, but "water can not be boated and land hindered by colts".
But it was in this barren and barren land that people discovered the mystery of winemaking. The history of winemaking in Moutai Town can be traced back to the Han Dynasty - the "wolf sauce" contained in the "History", but the description of the modern sauce wine process did not appear until the "Chronicle of the Continuation of Zunyi Province" revised in the Republic of China period, "pure sorghum as sand boiling, and wheat koji three points, brewing cellar, through the moon, steaming, both simmering and re-brewing, must be several times and then made."
Before the founding of New China, there were not many wineries in the town, and the three most famous ones were "Huamao" Chengyi Burning House, "Wang Mao" Ronghe Burning House and "Lai Mao" Hengxing WineRy. In 1951, the Guizhou provincial government acquired Chengyi Yaofang for 130 million yuan (old currency), and then merged two other companies to establish the state-owned Moutai Distillery. To this day, the craftsmanship of Moutai Distillery is still a mystery that is not known to outsiders. Even if other distilleries can replicate every process of Moutai, it is still difficult to produce an authentic Moutai flavor.
We tried to contact Moutai Group to do an interview, but the interview was a sinking sea. Moutai Group does not have an external contact number, and the reception desk told us that the telephone in the publicity room can only be dialed through the internal line. All the Moutai employees who came into contact with them were very cautious about the interview, either refusing or asking for anonymity.
Moutai Town Photo/Reporter Fang Yingzhong
For locals, going to work in Moutai Distillery is a matter of "one person entering the factory, the whole family is glorious", which is more difficult than taking the civil service examination. Zheng Ze's hometown is in Moutai Town, he graduated from a 211 university in 2008, queued up until midnight, signed up for the social recruitment of Moutai Group, and finally successfully entered the factory, realizing the dream from childhood to adulthood.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the town of Moutai was poor, and the moutai distillery's solid assets and enviable staff treatment made it a sacred place in the hearts of locals, and whoever hung a calendar of the Moutai distillery during the New Year could arouse the envious eyes of its neighbors.
Moutai Distillery's good welfare, strong sense of honor, coupled with the prohibition of winemakers and other wineries to "hook up", is increasingly regarded as an "independent kingdom", so its wine, along with the mystery of production, has been deified.
"7.5 square kilometers" became part of the mystery story. In 2001, after review by the State Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision, Moutai wine was approved as a "regional product of origin" protected by the state. This is the third product to obtain regional origin protection since the implementation of China's Provisions on the Protection of Products of Origin in 1999.
The square with the lights of "I love Maotai" Photo/Reporter of this magazine Big Food
The Guizhou Provincial Government issued a document specifically defining the production area of Moutai wine (Guizhou Moutai wine), which was framed at 7.5 square kilometers, and Moutai wine later became a "geographical indication protection product". In 2013, the scope of origin of Moutai wine was adjusted again, expanding to 15.03 square kilometers, but the concept of 7.5 square kilometers as a "core production area" has long been deeply rooted in the market and people's hearts.
The clear boundaries have also made Moutai Town Liquor go to a different fate. Within the core production area, it represents high skill and high price. Outside of this range, gimmicks and chaos intersect.
A large liquor company has been operating in Moutai Town for many years and has recently been using "7.5 square kilometers" as an important publicity selling point. In fact, its factory area was originally 7.5 square kilometers away, but not long ago, it bought a small piece of land in the "core production area", and the output was very small, mainly for tourists and potential customers to visit and experience. The wine company called it, "This is a concept, telling the story of Moutai well." ”
"7.5 or 8.5, is this the quality of Moutai wine that other brands can make within 7.5 in Panlong and Phoenix?" Chen Renyuan, a senior engineer at the Guizhou Provincial Liquor Product Quality Inspection and Testing Institute, told Southern People Weekly, "What kind of environment there is, what kind of microorganisms are produced; what kind of microorganisms, what kind of wine will be produced, and no other place can replace it." ”
During the Qingming Dynasty, in the Chishui Red Army Martyrs' Cemetery, parents took their children to sweep the graves Photo/Reporter of this magazine Eat Big Food
In January 1975, in order to make up for the shortage of Moutai production, the Science and Technology Office of the Chinese Academy of Sciences issued a project plan for the "Moutai Wine Off-site Experiment". The branch of the experiment was selected in Zunyi City and Moutai geographical environment similar to the cross shop, the former Moutai distillery director Zheng Guangxian, deputy chief engineer Yang Renmian, laboratory deputy director Lin Baocai and other 28 people were transferred to the branch, the production of mud, lees, wine koji are taken from Moutai distillery.
Off-site experiments have been conducted for nearly 11 years. In October 1985, after evaluating the experimental wine making, including Mr. Ji Keliang, chief engineer of Moutai Distillery, the expert group came up with the evaluation of "basically having the style of Moutai wine", and concluded that "the wine quality is better, but there is still a certain gap with Moutai wine". Fang Yi, then vice premier of the State Council, immediately wrote an inscription for the branch factory "Treasures in Wine", and the branch was renamed Guizhou Zhen Distillery.
Suboptimal off-site experiments appear again and again. Some researchers have used the same process to make sauce and sake in a similar environment in a certain place in Japan, but they have also failed. For decades, "only here can make the best sauce wine". All this nourishes the town of Moutai like a spell, making it the "wine capital" it is today.
Because of its mystery, Moutai has gradually been metaphysicalized by some people in the folk. Zheng Ze told us that the accumulation and fermentation of Moutai wine is for aerobic microbial fermentation, the fermentation into the pool is for the fermentation of anaerobic microorganisms, the accumulation of fermentation is called yang fermentation, absorbing the radiance of the sun and the moon; the fermentation of the pool is called yin fermentation, absorbing the essence of the earth, which is called the combination of yin and yang. The lower reaches of the Chishui River are all straight forward, and only an S-shaped arc is formed here in Maotai. Like Tai Chi Bagua, the two poles of Bagua, one pole is in Moutai Distillery, and the other pole is in Moutai International Hotel.
In the large-scale song and dance drama "Heavenly Brew" staged in Moutai Town, an old man with a lantern walked alone, looking for the destined wine, traveled to Moutai Town, and finally found the miracle of Ganlin descending from heaven.
Brewing that is difficult to regulate
When asked about the uniqueness of "7.5 square kilometers", different interviewees gave a variety of answers, the highest frequency of which was the Chishui River, the canyon environment and the unique sorghum here.
The Chishui River originates in Zhenxiong County, northeast Yunnan, and flows eastward, turning around in Maotai Town, heading northwest, and joining the Yangtze River from Sichuan. From Moutai Town below, along the way, there are also Xishui Town, where Xijiu is located, Erlang Town, where Langjiu is located, Luzhou, where Luzhou Old Cellar is located, and Yibin, where Wuliangye is located, etc., forming a golden triangle of liquor.
In the view of Wu Wenxuan, who made the Chishui River solution for the Moutai Distillery a few years ago, "the Chishui River is an ordinary river", and the state of the river changes according to the inflow of surface water upstream. In winter, there is less rain, and less surface water is added; in summer, when the water rises, the surface water is more concentrated, and the upper red soil layer will be brought into the river. "We must often take its water samples for testing to ensure that no matter what time the water is, it must meet its (Moutai wine) water standards." Wu Wenxuan said.
The Chishui River also has something different, Wu Wenxuan said: "The amount of organic matter in the Chishui River is very low, the mineral species is rich, and it is easier to treat than other waters. But he believes that moutai town is more special is the overall environment, the moutai distillery cellar pit where the soil content of sand and gravel is high, "the wine koji has room to breathe", the canyon terrain is low, the heat is difficult to disperse, and the summer temperature is higher than the surrounding area, so that the wine koji can be fermented more fully.
Chishui River Valley, Moutai Town Photo/Reporter of this magazine Big Food
The key to making sorghum and water into wine is the microorganisms inside. Zheng Ze believes that this is also the most critical mystery of The Moutai Distillery, the town of Moutai is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and there is no wind in the canyon, so "microorganisms from hundreds of years ago, or even longer, naturally formed a mysterious microbiota in the air."
No one can explain how the microbes interact with each other, giving Moutai a unique flavor. Since the 1950s, the former Ministry of Light Industry and Moutai Factory have been studying the trace components of microbial formation in Moutai wine. In 2006, Ji Keliang said in the paper that Moutai liquor detected more than 1400 kinds of trace components, which is the world's richest distilled liquor with trace components. Chen Renyuan told the Southern People Weekly that other wines, such as fragrant and fragrant, have found its body aroma type in the laboratory, Moutai wine does not, and there is no answer to how complex the microorganisms have produced in the long-term fermentation.
In addition to its mysterious microorganisms, Moutai Group also has an advantage that other wineries have difficult to achieve: they can pursue quality regardless of cost.
Starting from the raw materials, Moutai Group sourced the best local red tassel sorghum, a specialty sorghum with a thick skin that is difficult to steam as food, but can withstand nine repeated cookings during winemaking, and has a high tannin content. From August to November every year, Renhuai Grain and Oil Collection and Storage Corporation purchases red tassel sorghum from local farmers at a price higher than the market (such as 9.2 yuan / kg in 2020), which meets the quality standards of Moutai wine. Moutai Group only needs sorghum with full grains.
Moutai Group's labor costs are also higher than those of other wineries. In Moutai Town, where the wages of brewers are generally three or four thousand, Moutai Group's brewers can get an annual salary of 150,000 or more. Matched by generous welfare benefits are high-intensity manual labor and a strict management system.
Female worker in a Moutai wine packaging workshop Photo/Visual China
After Zheng Ze entered the factory, he learned that even college students in key schools need to be brewers in the front line for five years. The seniors told him: "Work well, and die in the hanging hall." "He was assigned to the wine-making workshop. In the distillery in Maotai Town, the general male workers are responsible for making wine, and the female workers are responsible for making koji, because women have little strength, the work of making koji is relatively easy, and the wine-making workshop often needs to be turned over, carrying several lees piles of more than 1500 kilograms, so that they can be steamed, cooled and fermented at different times.
In the winter, Zheng Ze had to get up at 3 a.m. and arrive at work at 5 a.m. In the summer, the temperature next to the sake koshiki (a large cooking utensil for steaming sorghum) is more than 60 degrees, and "the clothes are wet all day, and there is no way to turn on the air conditioner, because the brewing sauce-flavored liquor must be in a high temperature environment." "Workers take cellar leave only every month when the lees are fermented in the pond.
The process of sauce-flavored liquor is to cook sorghum nine times, after cooking, add sake koji into the cellar to ferment, from the third steaming time to take the wine, a total of seven rounds, the final wine is mixed with seven rounds of wine. The whole process takes a year. "The cost of consumption is not only in this, the new wine can not be sold, but also need to be stored for four years," Zheng Ze said, "in five years, this batch of wine only investment, no return, each step regardless of the cost, with the best, how many wineries can afford?" Zheng Ze said.
Workers at the Most Qianxian Distillery and Junfeng Distillery in Moutai Town make wine koji Photo/Reporter of this magazine Dashi
Moutai Group's storage workshop is far more than the production workshop, which means that it can store more and more accurately, and the wine in different workshops, different teams, and different rounds of wine is stored in different grades, and different flavors are strictly distinguished. "Other wineries can't do it, small wineries have up to dozens of base wines, large wineries have hundreds, and Moutai has thousands." Zheng Ze introduced.
After visiting several wineries, we may also think that the reason why Moutai wine is difficult to replicate may also be that neither brewing nor bartending can apply scientific norms. This ancient and traditional craft can only be controlled by teachers who have accumulated experience year after year. Zheng Ze mentioned a detail, every year after the sorghum is harvested, the teacher will bite open the sorghum grains, look at the thickness and softness of the sorghum skin, thereby determining the amount of water added and the temperature of the steaming, after each round of cooking, the teacher will decide the next round of water, the amount of koji according to the situation, the time of cooling, the temperature of the pile. This is a process that can only rely on experience and cannot be precisely controlled by regulation.
In fact, the wine brewed in strict accordance with this traditional process is considered to be the highest quality wine in Moutai Town. In order to reduce costs, some distilleries will work on the process, such as distilling the lees discarded after brewing on the edible alcohol, stringing in the aroma of food, so that the wine produced fills the streets of Maotai Town.
"Why not earn more if you can earn more?"
After learning that we were going to Moutai Town, many friends around us taught us how to buy Moutai Feitian wine experience, such as finding scalpers to stay in The Moutai International Hotel, taking a specific flight to Maotai Airport, and so on. Buying Feitian Moutai wine at the original price of 1499 yuan has been very difficult.
Several major Internet e-commerce platforms have launched fixed-point wine grabbing activities, releasing several bottles every day, and are sought after by consumers like prize lottery tickets. In order to grab a bottle of Feitian Maotai, some people do not hesitate to buy a large number of second-hand mobile phones and make their own crawler software. The Moutai sales activities of offline supermarkets such as Costco and Sam's Club can cause tens of thousands of people to queue up every time. During the eleventh period of 2020, Luo Yonghao sold Feitian wine in the live broadcast room, a bottle of 2850 yuan, 90% higher than the original price, and it was sold short as soon as it was on the shelves. At present, the market price of a bottle of Moutai Feitian wine has been speculated to more than 3,000 yuan.
Baijiu sales Fang Siyuan introduced that the sales of Moutai Feitian Liquor are mainly based on Guizhou Moutai Liquor Sales Co., Ltd., which is responsible for traditional channels, such as distributors, specialty stores and self-operated stores. In 2019, Guizhou Moutai Group Marketing Co., Ltd. was established, which is responsible for the supply of large shopping malls, e-commerce platforms and large enterprises with an annual revenue of more than 5 billion.
Moutai self-operated store Feitian liquor sold at the original price, people who want to buy need to make an appointment on the WeChat public account of Guizhou Moutai Sales Co., Ltd., participate in the lottery, and be selected to obtain the purchase qualification, the probability is about two in a thousand. "If you think there's something wrong with this approach, then overturn Beijing's license plate lottery mechanism." Fang Siyuan said.
On the streets of Moutai Town, young people selling wine Photo/Reporter of this magazine Big Food
The market price fluctuates greatly, and Moutai Group has been trying to control prices, for example, from January 12, 2021, Moutai dealers have been required to unbox 100% of their sales, hitting some speculators who collect and speculate in full boxes. But Fang Siyuan believes that the price is difficult to be controlled by official measures, "the market is in a state of short supply", "dealers are making the difference, the difference between the purchase price and the market price, can earn more why not earn?" Even if one company lowers the price, others can still sell at a high price. ”
"Moutai Group can't get the dealer's share back, this is a matter of killing chickens and eggs." Fang Siyuan said that several sales crises of Moutai liquor have been overcome by the support of distributors. The first time was the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis in 1998, the state-owned sugar and wine company was affected, Ji Keliang and the then general manager Yuan Renguo decided to find their own distributors and reopen sales channels. The most recent was in 2012 after the introduction of the ban on the "three gongs" consumption, moutai wine demand shrank sharply, Moutai Group in the next few years even introduced preferential rules, as long as the distributor in the first year at 969 yuan to buy Moutai, the second year at 819 yuan at the factory price to buy the same share of wine.
Fang Siyuan said: "Dealers and Moutai Group have been in the same boat for so many years, can they be said to take it back?" And how much money have dealers made through Moutai over the years, and how many relationships have they made? If Moutai Group takes back its share, it means leaving the local network. ”
In addition to normal retail, the OEM business is an important way of survival for other distilleries in Moutai Town, and local sales staff said that even the subsidiaries of Moutai Group and large wineries such as Guotai Liquor Industry can also talk about OEM business under suitable conditions.
Moutai town distilleries are responsible for producing wine, other liquor companies may only have brand trademarks, no wine, buy from the former, a market everywhere "Moutai town sauce wine" is produced. For some small local wineries with low visibility, it is their consensus that "it is difficult to find ten customers to buy wine, and it is easy to find ten OEM brands".
Walking on the streets of Maotai Town, the liquor culture street is full of liquor shops, there are direct sales and distribution stores of large distilleries, and there are also signboards of unknown small distilleries, and almost every storefront puts "OEM" in the first place.
"You (tourists) buy one or two bottles, that is, tasting, we mainly do not do such a business, but OEM," Song Dafei introduced. He is a partner in a local company, which is a combination of restaurant and distillery, both of which are named "Most Qian Line". He was an employee of Daifuku Distillery, a large local liquor company, and after working in the workshop for several years, he and his friends came out to make their own wine, and now it has been more than a decade.
Song Dafei, the head of the most Qianxian distillery Photo/Reporter of this magazine Dashi
Song Dafei's winery is small and opens on a hill in the town of Maotai. The car turns around the winding road, and almost every bend you can see a small winery, which is halfway up the mountain. Combining wine with catering to increase visibility is the way he figured it out.
For most liquor sellers in Moutai Town, the most traditional model is to shout in the store, after attracting potential customers, impress each other with "brotherhood", such as accompanying the whole tour of the winery, to the chairman's home to eat a family banquet, there will be roasted whole lamb during the banquet - the local characteristics of Renhuai lamb is more famous.
The quality of wine is not necessarily related to human relations, but it invisibly promotes the development of the local catering industry, hotel industry and entertainment industry. In Moutai Town and Renhuai City, private rooms in slightly larger restaurants must have mahjong tables. In the high-end chain hotels, there are "visitors" who visit the winery all year round. Business KTV is also very developed in the local area, the largest entrance fee is 800 yuan, there is "600 yuan service fee, there will be princess cleaning, song, supper 100 yuan." According to the marketer of this KTV, the night show in Renhuai City is very hot, comparable to first-tier cities, and it takes 3,000 yuan to go in and drink some wine casually.
In the fog, the town of Moutai panorama, it is said that here is the core area of 7.5 square kilometers, the whole river valley can smell the strong smell of qu/ this magazine reporter big food
As a local college student who went out, Yang Hua discovered a new way to sell alcohol - circle marketing. When he was studying in a foreign country, a classmate asked him to help buy sauce and wine from Moutai Town. Under the introduction of relatives, he found a gray-haired teacher to buy wine, and when he returned, he found that he was deceived, and the wine was difficult to drink. Later, he worked as a distributor of Moutai liquor for a period of time, and after a few years, he sold liquor independently, had his own distillery and brand, and sold liquor to people who understood wine, rich people - his friends around him.
He recently enrolled in an EMBA program at a university in Beijing, with a high entry threshold and all of his classmates at the level of corporate partners. A classmate spent 800,000 yuan to buy his wine, and the gifts were exchanged, and he also bought 120,000 yuan of chestnuts, several cars, and gave them to people.
The entry of new capital has also brought new ways of buying and selling on the Internet. Li Li is the head of marketing of an Internet e-commerce company, and in 2017, he went to Moutai Town to do sauce and wine business. Previously, his company mainly sold cosmetics.
As a foreign capital, Li Li believes that the marketing method of Moutai Town is "extremely old-fashioned": "Participating in exhibitions, buying telephone materials, sweeping the streets to sell ... This is an ecology that Internet players have long eliminated. A successful business model must be to get customers first, and then convert. Li Li claimed to have used this logic to "trade more than one billion yuan" in the field of cosmetics.
He climbed a lot of "pits" in Maotai Town. Initially working with a winery, he claimed to have "spent more than 60 million yuan a year" to advertise, from being lonely and nameless to achieving sales of more than 200 million yuan a year, but he still thought it failed because few customers repurchased. Under high exposure, it is easy to sell the first product, but the quality of the wine is not good, "sell a product, increase a sales, lose a customer", Li Li explained, "Under the Internet model, (many people) are betting that customers will buy back." ”
Li Li went to Moutai Town in 2017 to choose a production cooperation distillery, originally favored a winery, but after comparing more, he chose a cheaper one, and felt that "no matter what business you do, step into a new industry, the lower the cost, the better." He suffered a loss only to find that he had "made the mistake that all businessmen make", and in order to control the cost, he only went to build a brand and ignored the quality of the wine. Later, he changed to another distillery to cooperate, in order to ensure quality, "do not cooperate with low-cost rotten wine.". He took out his mobile phone, which had a cooperation intention message just sent by a winery, the cheapest wine, the cost price is only 8 yuan a bottle (500ml).
Under the sauce and wine boom, all kinds of capital poured into Moutai Town, building its own "brand moat" - "I have spent 500,000 yuan to make a brand, you want to play with me, first burn 500,000 and then say." A liquor distributor explained the current liquor market in Moutai Town.
Hard
Among the people who bought Moutai wine, the most basic level that Fang Si had foreseen was the teacher, who bought a gift when he wanted to change his job or change the environment. He introduced, "Most of the people who buy Moutai wine are enterprises, bosses, and basically party B's enterprises. To Party A. "Very few people buy Moutai wine for their own sake, and its value far exceeds the value of being a bottle of wine.
"Sangong" consumption was once the largest group of buyers of Moutai wine. After Master Long returned to work in Renhuai, he drove a large truck for several years to transport Moutai wine for the logistics company - pulling a cart worth 20 to 30 million yuan, running on highways across the country. At that time, Moutai did not have a special logistics company, and the logistics company could transport wine by paying a deposit of 800,000 yuan. Master Long's most frequent places to transport wine are Shanghai and Jiangsu and Zhejiang, followed by Beijing, and Qingdao is also many.
Since the promulgation of the "Eight Regulations" in 2012, the consumption of "Three Gongs" has been strictly controlled, and the high-end liquor market has been sluggish. The price of Moutai Feitian wine fell from 2600 yuan a bottle cliff to 800 yuan. The sales of other liquors in Moutai Town are even more problematic, and many distilleries are insolvent and pledge to store wine. The sauce wine industry has entered a five-year downturn, but the "hard currency" nature of Moutai wine has led some people to believe that the sauce wine market will pick up.
Li Li entered the sauce wine market during the downturn. He said, "The people around me are drinking, and it's not wrong to throw it." In China, "rich people and people with status have been consuming sauce and fragrant wine", which is the social consensus. Li Li felt that this market could be completely done.
In the downturn of sauce and wine, Yang Hua is still full of confidence, Chinese buy up and not buy down, "can't give gifts, eat and drink can not be better? In his view, Moutai is a symbol of status and status. He went out by reading, from the countryside to the town, the county seat, and then to Beijing, and finally returned to his hometown as the owner of a liquor company.
"You drive a car of 50,000 yuan and talk to people about 100 million yuan of business, how people talk to you, who talks to you." Yang Hua relied on the wine in his hometown to develop, and when he just had a little money, he bought crocodile brand clothes to wear; now he bought LV, FENDI, and Burberry, the latter price is much higher than that of crocodiles, but the quality may be only a little better. In his opinion, this is the same as buying Moutai,, what do I make money for, I have to buy Moutai, otherwise I will make money. ”
Fang Siyuan concluded that Moutai is a symbol of status and a manifestation of ability and value, "You invited me to drink Maotai, I feel that you respect me and respect the value I bring to you." ”
The town of Moutai is full of liquor bureaus Photo/Reporter of this magazine Big food
Moutai wine also brings value to the town of Moutai and the sauce wine in the town. After the marketization of Moutai Group, the brand influence and sales volume have increased year by year, making the sauce wine known to more people, and the output and performance have been greatly increased. According to the data compiled by Quantu Sauce Wine Studio, in 2011, the national sauce liquor production accounted for 3% of the liquor industry, accounting for about 14% of the revenue; in 2020, the output of sauce liquor accounted for 8% of the liquor industry, accounting for 26% of the revenue.
In addition to bringing market value, Moutai wine has always been the benchmark of the industry. Xu Xingjiang, vice president of Renhuai Quality Inspection Institute, introduced that when testing wine, in addition to testing safety indicators and physical and chemical indicators, there is also taste evaluation, the indicator is detected by instruments, and the taste needs to be identified by a taster. Training sommeliers to use the sample of Moutai as a reference, "The benchmark of sauce wine is Maotai, Moutai is characterized by prominent sauce aroma, elegant and delicate, and the sommelier remembers what Moutai is like, in order to judge other sauce wines." ”
Consumers to judge whether the sauce-flavored liquor is good standard is also Moutai wine, Yang Hua said: "Drinking More and more Maotai, Moutai does represent the top quality of sauce-flavored wine, the best wine is like this, many people understand, will judge that the wine at least has similarity with Moutai, not like it is not good." ”
"But isn't it really bad not to be like that?" This is also an evil path. Yang Hua said.
Born in Sake City
Baijiu created the prosperity of Moutai Town, making this town deep in the hinterland of the southwest the first place in the top 100 towns in the west. According to the news released by the people's government of Moutai Town, the industrial output value of Moutai Town in 2020 was 89.07 billion yuan, and the per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents reached 59,730 yuan and 23,575 yuan respectively, and the per capita disposable income of Guizhou Province in the same year was 21,795 yuan.
Nowadays, the appearance of the tourist town of Moutai Town is only in 2015, pushing forward twenty years, "there are no resources here." Yang Hua's hometown is in Erhe Town, which is adjacent to Moutai Town (after 2015, Erhe Town was assigned to Moutai Town), he always remembers the "poor and scared days" when he was a child, the roads in the town are very bad, there is no commissary, the street vendors sell popsicles come once or twice a summer, and the children in the village carry fifty cents with them, waiting for the vendors to shout, if they miss it, they may regret it for a year.
In the 1980s, there were few serious distilleries in Moutai Town, except for moutai distilleries and wineries of supply and marketing cooperatives. Xu Xing, 57 years old, could not find a job in Moutai Town when he was young, and in 1985 he applied for a job at the Moutai Experimental Factory in Zunyi, then worked as a winemaker in the Zhen Distillery for more than 20 years, and later went to work in the distillery in Guiyang. It was not until 2009, after the soy sauce wine market gradually improved, that the number of wineries increased, and Master Xu returned to his hometown to work as a winemaker at the Junfeng Distillery in the Famous Wine Industrial Park in Maotai Town.
"The world's first bottle" photo / reporter of this magazine big food
In the past decade, the number of wineries in Moutai Town has exploded, from hundreds in 2009 to 3,000 now. Many locals have returned to their hometowns to work during this decade, and dozens of wineries in the famous liquor industrial park have brought thousands of jobs to the local area. Tingting, an intern of Yanghua Distillery, is a native of the former Erhe Town, and she recalled that in the past, there were almost no young people in the town, they all went to work in the field, there were many local mountains, agriculture was not easy to do, the industry was not developed, "if you want to make money, you can only be outside", after the construction of the winery, young people began to stay. Her father, who previously worked in Fujian, also returned home in 2014 to work as an electrician in a winery.
Tingting is studying in a normal college, about to graduate, but she is reluctant to be a teacher and is preparing to participate in this year's school recruitment of Moutai Group. "Teacher Renhuai's salary is not high, it is only three or four thousand a month, in addition to wine, Renhuai's salary in many industries is not very high." Tingting said, but renhuai's price is much higher than the surrounding areas, even more than Zunyi City, straight to the provincial capital Guiyang, "Renhuai belongs to the consumer city, many things do not have their own production plants, clothing, shoes, daily chemicals, as well as vegetables, crops, have to be purchased from outside." ”
The influx of people in the liquor business has further raised the price of Renhuai. This feeling is reflected in all aspects, from the price of a bowl of flour for breakfast to the price of the house. In the breakfast shop in Zunyi, a bowl of flour sells for 6 yuan, while Renhuai wants to sell for 11 yuan, the boss explained: "Although the price is much lower, there are more rich people here, and there are more foreigners. ”
In the first quarter of 2021, the average price of new houses in Huichuan District of Zunyi City was about 7,000 yuan, the average price of new houses in Renhuai City was about 8,000 yuan, and the average price of second-hand houses was even more than 8,500 yuan. Many people who work in Moutai Town live in Renhuai City. In order to protect the production environment, Renhuai City started the relocation of residents in November 2009, and nearly 20,000 people moved from Moutai Town to Renhuai City. Phase 1 to Phase 5 of the National Liquor New City Community in the city is used to undertake these relocated populations.
Xijiu Town in Guizhou (left) and Erlang Town in Sichuan (right) are across the Red River Photo/Reporter Dashi
The first to move were employees of The Moutai Group. Zhao Hairong currently lives in Phase 1 of Guojiu New Town and is a retired Moutai distillery worker. He recalls that the distillery issued a notice in 2010 requiring all employees to move around the plant within three months. He is happy to see the relocation come to fruition, and after moving to the city, life is much more convenient, whether it is shopping or traveling. Every day, Moutai Distillery will also arrange buses to transport employees to and from work, and a bus will run every half an hour. After the relocation of Moutai employees, nearby residents also slowly moved out.
Renhuai city does not see shared bicycles and electric vehicles as common as in other cities, and instead a large number of taxis and ride-hailing cars. A taxi master said that the local taxi company had to charge 260 yuan a day, and Zunyi only charged 150 yuan, because Renhuai's business was better, and the car he bought himself did not have to pay a share of money, and he could earn more than 10,000 yuan a month. Taxis in Renhuai City to play the meter, to a trip to Maotai Town is a fixed fee of 50 yuan, the price is set very confident, "OKAY? If it doesn't work, it's gone. ”
Hundreds of billions of "small" towns
On February 10, 2021, Guizhou Moutai closed at 2627.88 yuan / share, creating a record high price in history. Although the stock price has dropped sharply since the Spring Festival, Guizhou Moutai is still the most expensive A-share stock.
The huge size of the economy has led to a delicate relationship between the Moutai Group and the administrative system of the town. Many of the "official positions" of the Moutai Group are larger than those of Moutai Town or even Renhuai City, and the secretary of the Renhuai Municipal Party Committee is a cadre at the department level, while the chairman of the Moutai Group is a cadre at the deputy department level.
Along the banks of the Chishui River, the "Golden Triangle of Chinese Liquor", although there are also large liquor companies such as Langjiu, Xijiu, Luzhou Laojiao and Wuliangye, there is no place such as Maotai Town, which supports the entire region by one enterprise and one industry.
Placed in a small mountain town with such a huge volume, there are often many problems that are difficult to solve, and some of them cause headaches for all levels of government in Maotai Town and Renhuai City. Everyone knows that there are many traffic jams in Moutai Town, there are many vehicles coming and going, and there are many large trucks in and out, and the road in and out of the town is only two lanes wide, and a large truck cannot turn a corner, or a car parked on the side of the road occupies the road, which may block the road. The economy is developing rapidly, but the road cannot be broadened.
"Every inch of movement along the Chishui River, whether it is near the mountain or by the river, must be planned and managed by the Ministry of Land and Resources, and there are satellites in the sky to supervise every day, which is very strict." Huang Qianhua said he was the executive secretary general of the Renhuai Wine Culture Research Association and a former reporter for the Guiyang Evening News, who had been following The town of Moutai and the Chishui River for years.
Huang Qianhua introduced that the environmental protection requirements of the Chishui River are very strict, its main stream is the upper reaches of the Yangtze River rare and endemic fish national nature reserve, the river basin is distributed in many national nature reserves, for the local government, more than an inch of soil is more than an inch of risk, afraid of affecting the natural environment and the microorganisms in it.
The town of Erlang in Sichuan is undergoing a great construction project, and on the other side of the Chishui River is the factory building of Guizhou Xijiu Photo/Reporter Dashi
In the fight against low-cost counterfeit liquor, the local government also has a lot of helplessness. Huang Qianhua said that there is a joke in the Renhuai liquor industry, "Moutai Town, Guanshanhu District, Guiyang City", because many low-priced wines under the name of Moutai Town are from the Guanshanhu District of Guiyang City. Although the locals are worried about the reputation of Renhuai and Sauce-flavored Liquor being destroyed, the Renhuai Municipal Government has no way to intervene across regions, and although the production of low-priced liquor does not conform to the process of Sauce-flavored Liquor, it does not violate the law, so it cannot be solved at the legal level.
E-commerce platforms have boosted the sales of low-priced wine, Taobao, Pinduoduo and other platforms have "9.9 yuan a bottle of free mail" Moutai town sauce wine, some directly embezzled the trademark of Moutai Town distillery, resulting in some wineries are reluctant to open up e-commerce sales channels, so as not to confuse true and false.
After Huang Qianhua went to the Wine Culture Research Association, he found that in recent years, Renhuai's wine companies have paid more attention to the protection of the Chishui River and the brand effect of Renhuai, "Everyone has formed a community of destiny in the production area, worried that if one does not pay attention, the Renhuai production area will be destroyed." Most companies have a minimum understanding that the environment and the image of the production area are related to their jobs. ”
Many liquor companies in Moutai Town rely on their own brands alone, and it is difficult to gain a foothold in this market. In addition to Moutai and the first echelon of large liquor companies such as Guotai and Diaoyutai, although there are many other brands, their influence is limited, and the problem of "scattered, small and chaotic" brands has been repeatedly mentioned in the industry. Huang Qianhua said: "Renhuai can only say that there are more than 3,000 trademarks, many trademarks may not have produced wine since registration, and in the entire Renhuai production area, there are not many brands that can really be called (liquor companies). ”
Wineries build their brands in a variety of ways. Many local liquor companies have the word "Qian" in their names, which means to represent Guizhou. The same is true of the wineries that Bai Chuanzheng invested in. Sometimes, people who don't know the word ask him, "Are you the Kurojin Group?" "You don't know the qianzi?" Don't know the abbreviations of Chinese provinces? How did high school get mixed up? The head of the liquor company scolded angrily, and he began investing in Moutai Town in 2012.
At a banquet, Bai Chuanzheng mentioned this matter and came up with a way, "In order to popularize everyone's understanding of Qianzi, we will hold a competition in spelling Qianzi throughout China, and all distributors who answer correctly will be rewarded with ten boxes of our wine." ”
The people on the team echoed each other, and they all followed Bai Chuanzheng for many years, entering the sauce wine industry a few years ago, raising their glasses, "Thank you boss." ”
"Don't call me boss or boss, in the future, unify your voice internally and externally, and call me General Manager Bai." Bai Chuanzheng smiled and replied.
Two generations
Locals drink liquor without looking at the brand, according to the words of Didi driver Master Long, "the brand is useless, the bottle is counted." Most people buy wine, are from relatives and friends of the distillery to buy just brewed Kunsha wine, earlier can also choose to buy the best taste of three or four or five rounds of wine, and then the distillery are mixed with seven rounds of wine to sell, the price is not expensive, 50 yuan a pound. After the wine is bought, it is placed in the home to seal the altar, store it, and wait for the vintage to be enough to take it out and drink it. The older the sauce-flavored liquor, the better, and the average person will hoard dozens or even hundreds of pounds of wine.
Some wines are put on for one or two decades, when the family holds wedding banquets and birthday banquets, local talents take them out to entertain guests, sometimes reluctant to use them directly, and will find a bartender to add new wines. The bottles containing the wine can be customized, and the wine bottles at the wedding banquet in Renhuai City are fashionably decorated with photos of the newlyweds.
The method of winemaking is well known in the local area, and Moutai Distillery is another big one, so the people who make wine, as well as the people who drink wine, do not have a strong brand concept. Huang Qianhua recalled that in the early days of reform and opening up, in the 1980s, when the first batch of private enterprises in Renhuai first rose, "the whole of Guizhou was going crazy with alcohol, every household was making wine, and a cellar could also open a distillery." ”
On the highway leading to Moutai Town, a huge hand suddenly stretches out to toast you Photo/Reporter of this magazine Big Food
At that time, enterprises such as Huaizhuang and JiuzhongJiu, which were doing their own brands, belonged to the minority, and the misappropriation of Moutai trademarks as infringing wines was the mainstream. After many people make money, they continue to expand production, and the sales of loose wine are limited, so they develop an OEM business, sell a large number of base wines, and take the road of small profits and high sales.
Tang Hui feels that this is the immature place of the previous generation, whether it is modern business management or brand awareness, it will be improved in the new generation of Renhuai Wine. He was previously an employee of the Moutai Group, but after resigning in 2014, he set up his own distillery, Honmi Fang.
In the early stage of the development of the winery, there was no great production capacity, and Tang Hui temporarily gave up the pursuit of quantity. Most of the small and medium-sized enterprises make liquor under the contract system, and the whole team of 12 workers is contracted to the foreman. The winery and the foreman signed a betting agreement, "For example, the part of the production is calculated according to two pieces and five pounds, and the excess part may be three pieces per pound, and everyone in the team divides, so that the quality is prone to problems, and the more it is exceeded, the fainter the taste of the wine." ”
Tang Hui did not contract production to the foreman, but signed a contract with each worker, gave them a guaranteed minimum wage, each round of five thousand yuan, a year of the whole process, the worker's guaranteed wage is more than 60,000 yuan, only in the range beyond a small amount of money, the excess does not count, "so that I at least do not have to worry about the workers getting up in the middle of the night to add glycosylase." ”
In the design of the brand, Tang Hui took his own name, started slogan, wrote a small poem printed on the wine box, and went to Jingdezhen to find a master to make a wine bottle with a sky blue ice crack bottle. "I want to have something unique of my own, a personality, not a big red and rhubarb, or something like Maotai."
Unlike their predecessors, the younger generation of local wine company leaders is acting in a changing style, but the inheritance of winemaking has not changed. Tang Hui is a layman for making wine, and the existing knowledge is what he has learned from many teachers, "The old craftsmen of Renhuai have the responsibility of inheritance, as long as they want to learn, they will be willing to teach and pass on other people's children as their own children." "Many old craftsmen have joined the expert pool of industry associations and volunteered to participate in the teaching of winemaking and wine tasting training.
Master Xu has been making wine for most of his life, and making wine was initially only a means of making a living, and later he became the chief engineer of Junfeng Distillery. He sat in the bright and spacious office and asked us not to call him manager. "Master, call me Master," he said in non-standard Mandarin.
Xu Xing, manager of the production department of Junfeng Wine Industry Photo/Reporter of this magazine Big Food
When it comes to passing on the craft of winemaking, he has a little regret. Master Xu has two sons, who previously taught the eldest son for three years, and then the eldest son did not do it, to do the business of wine packaging; the younger son entered the Moutai Distillery and was responsible for fire safety work. "Young people have their own ideas", Master Xu explained, to do technology (winemaking) to go down to the workshop, hard, they have been in the workshop for more than ten years, every link must be contacted, so that no matter where the problem can be solved.
Song Dafei did not go out to work, he focused on making wine in his hometown. He took out the 15-year-old wine from the cellar and showed it to us, scooping out a small spoonful for each person to take a sip. He doesn't sell this wine, and it's hard to buy on the market. He wants to make the wine business more long-term. The wife had just given birth to a second child, had to take care of the children, and sometimes followed him to see the store.
Yang Hua still uses the "circle layer sales" method to do business, he said not to worry about selling. After a few days of conversation, he didn't want his name to appear in front of people, "Don't worry, wait until I make the wine better, I don't know if I can make the same taste as Maotai." ”
Li Li's advertising investment is increasing, and he is already a big advertiser on the Internet platform. The business logic he believes in is different from that of traditional wine sellers, from the first advertisement invested to the last order recovered so far, everything is calculated by data deduction, following a fixed formula, "selling anything can be done well." It's just that the sauce wine is hot, and they enter this field, and it is inevitable that they will fight.
Everyone has their own story, and in Maotai Town, a word "wine" can string together everything. The Chishui River flows in the night, a street on the opposite bank is brightly lit, and countless "wine" signs hang high in the darkness, emitting colorful lights, appearing more chaotic and brighter.
(In order to protect the privacy of the interviewee, Zheng Ze, Wu Wenxuan, Fang Siyuan, Li Li, Yang Hua, and Bai Chuanzheng are pseudonyms)