Lin Chen/Wen
Guyue Longshan, who believes himself to be the traditional rice wine of Shaoxing, as the leader of yellow wine, has come to his opposite and the end of the industry in the formula. Its new brand "Youxue", which is aimed at young people, emphasizes that it is "caramel-free, real materials and unadulterated". And the high-end product Guojiu 1959, which is priced at about 17 times its price, still adds caramel color as usual.
In this regard, Guyue Longshan made the explanation that "Shaoxing yellow wine is characterized by amber color, all add caramel color, which has always been a tradition", completely ignoring the current positioning from The Chinese time-honored brand to the emerging rice wine brands have "authentic Shaoxing wine that can be colored like amber without adding a drop of caramel".
In addition, the addition of edible alcohol to its low-end cider is also different from the trend of fruit wine brands advocating grain distillation and slow fermentation of fruits in the current low-end wine trend.
The old dragon clock of the ancient Yue Longshan is difficult to use the word "traditional" as a shield.
Caramel color is Shaoxing rice wine tradition? There are Chinese time-honored brands and are not added
Recently, Caijing found in the Taobao Guyue Longshan store that a "Youxue" rice wine priced at 120 yuan was marketed with "no caramel color, real materials and no adulteration" as the selling point, and its ingredient list was indeed only Jianhu water, glutinous rice and wheat.
However, it is suspicious that a number of rice wines in the same store, including the white jade version of the national brew 1959 priced at nearly 2,000 yuan, still show the presence of additive caramel color. According to this, the financial network Sankei asked the ancient Yue Longshan side, whether there is a contradiction in this expression? If you don't add caramel color is worth promoting, why do high-end products need to be added?
In this regard, Guyue Longshan responded to the financial network Sankei, caramel color has no negative impact on quality. Do not add yellow wine color light, add more obvious amber, orange yellow. Youxue bottles are like whisky, and there are also guyue longshan to see that alcohol has a consumer age and brand rejuvenation problems to make changes in consideration.
"Some consumers advocate pure nature, so there is no added version of rice wine." But if you are a senior person who loves rice wine, you will not be bothered at all about whether there is caramel color. Guyue Longshan said to the financial network Sankei, "Shaoxing yellow wine is characterized by amber, all of which are added caramel color, which has always been a tradition." ”
According to the traditional saying that the caramel color of The ancient Yue Longshan is Shaoxing yellow wine, the financial network Sankei searched on Taobao and found that a variety of yellow wines of the Chinese time-honored brand "Tower Brand" said that they "inherited the real skills of Shaoxing yellow wine... Caramel-free... Color like amber". The promotional slogan of the emerging rice wine brand "Rice and Grass" is "redefining rice wine with its natural color", saying that it "does not add a drop of caramel color, brewed in strict accordance with the ancient method, the liquor is colorless and transparent at the beginning, aged for several years, and is natural goose yellow." Shaoxing Wuyue 12-year-old yellow wine also emphasizes that it is "no added caramel color and no blending".
Obviously, for the necessity of yellow wine caramel color, the actual operation of the market is not uniform.
"Even inside Shaoxing wine, it is controversial to add caramel color or not." Cheng Wansong, secretary general of the Beijing Liquor Circulation Industry Association, told the financial network Sankei that the caramel-colored yellow wine with the taste is traditional, but the palatability is poor, which is also one of the reasons why the rice wine is not big.
It also introduces that the color of rice wine will change from white to yellow after aging. Adding caramel is certainly helpful for color, aroma, and taste, but not necessarily all amber colors are caramelized. "The quality improvement of rice wine should start from the overall process, fully realize the refinement of brewing, and the marketization of flavor, and cannot be limited to certain links."
Edible alcohol is pure in taste, but also less expensive than distilled spirits
The recipe controversy of Guyue Longshan is not only about rice wine, but also about fruit wine. After observing the cider on the market, caijing network found that one of the sources of alcohol is distilled by koji, glutinous rice, sorghum and the like. Another is the addition of edible alcohol. The cider of Guyue Longshan is supplemented with edible alcohol.
"Edible alcohol is colorless and aromatic, the taste is refreshing and pure, there are few impurities, compared with the use of liquor, edible alcohol has no effect on the flavor of the fruit wine itself." Guyue Longshan explained to the financial network Sankei that the reason for its own use of edible alcohol to mix fruit wine.
However, liquor industry analyst Cai Xuefei told caijing that whether in terms of quality or cost, distilled liquor is superior to fermented wine, and fermented wine is better than edible alcohol. "Generally speaking, distilled spirits have a long brewing time and requirements for storage life, and It takes several years for Chinese liquor solid distilled spirits from production to sales, consuming grain, time, and effort, and the total cost is high." The fermentation wine has a relatively short cycle, a few months can be, and the process is relatively simple. As for the consumption of alcoholic liquor, it is a blended liquor and can be sold in a few days.
"We're not here to save costs." For the question of whether the use of edible alcohol is to reduce the cost, Guyue Longshan denied it to the financial network Sankei, but it also failed to give the specific cost amount of edible alcohol.
In addition to the controversy at the upstream end, Guyue Longshan also has doubts about the market in terms of downstream sales and inventory levels. Caijing recently visited some supermarkets in Beijing and found that they were still selling Guyue Longshan yellow wine products produced in March and July last year. The infrared packaging of the altar daughter of a supermarket also fell on the dust visible to the naked eye.
Judging from the semi-annual report released recently, the book balance of its inventory commodities at the end of the first half of this year increased by 13.17% from the beginning of the period to 1.6997 billion yuan. This growth rate is basically comparable to the first half of 2020 during the scorching period of the epidemic, but the volume has hit a new high in the past 5 years.
In this regard, Guyue Longshan explained to the financial network That the company put the finished wine and semi-finished products together to calculate. At the end of last year, there were 20,000 kiloliters of finished wine, and a total of 280,000 kiloliters of original wine in semi-finished products, including in pottery altars. "There are more bottles in the finished wine inventory than in altars." Guyue Longshan added.
As for the specific difference between the product and the semi-finished product of more than 40 million yuan in the financial report, Guyue Longshan explained that this is the product of the previous stage of the original wine and is still in the fermentation process.
The inventory digestion of Guyue Longshan looks slow, but the production cycle of some products seems to have some advantages in time consumption. But for the old rice wine Guyue Longshan, if you want to truly become a fast-paced brand that conforms to the trend of youth, you must first understand the tradition you adhere to, whether it is a real tradition, or another excuse.