Chen Zongheng is a strange person in the Chinese wine making industry. He once lost all his money from making and storing wine, and after creating a masterpiece of wine that shocked the world, he actually hid it in an old cave deep in the mountains without selling a drop of the wine for 30 years! When he was in poverty, even though his family lived in a few shabby houses that leaked all year round and ate wild vegetables every day, he always clung to this golden mountain, waiting for the best opportunity to change his destiny. Fast forward, more than 30 years have passed. What is the fate of Chen Zongheng who has been making and storing wine so crazily? Did he sell these 1,000 tons of cellar wine for astonishing prices, or was he holding on to the end of the rope? Unexpectedly, just when people were talking about him being a lunatic and the biggest idiot in the world, his cellar wine became famous all over the world like a fairy from heaven! What’s even more amazing is that today, his wine making and wine storage not only stand out among the rest, and are ranked among the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, but are also miraculously sold in Malaysia, Australia, India and the United States, making him legendary from a pauper to a billionaire in one fell swoop!
How did he create this magical wealth, and how did he keep it intact? Chen Zongheng’s legendary experience has set a classic example of wealth creation for readers all over the world!
A poor boy who failed the college entrance examination twice was obsessed with making wine and found out the secrets
Chen Zongheng was born in 1958 in a peasant family in Lizi Village, Liangwu Township, Lichuan City, Enshi Prefecture, Hubei Province. Lichuan City has beautiful mountains and clear waters and is the settlement of Tujia people. Tujia people have a traditional custom that there is no feast without wine and no ceremony without wine. Lizi Village was still making wine during the 30th year of Guangxu's reign in the Qing Dynasty. Every family made wine, and the village was filled with the alluring aroma of wine all year round. Chen Zongheng's family has been involved in brewing wine for generations, and he has been obsessed with brewing since he was a child.
In 1977 and 1978, Chen Zongheng took the college entrance examination twice. Although his scores exceeded the admission score of the college entrance examination twice, due to historical reasons and political review, he missed the university. After his dream of taking the college entrance examination was shattered, in order to change his fate of poverty, he borrowed money from here and there, built a wine workshop, and began to try to make sorghum wine and aging cellar wine. At that time, because he was obsessed with winemaking all day long and stayed in the wine cellar for a long time, whenever he passed by others, people would smell the aroma of wine on his body.
In the spring of 1982, Chen Zongheng brewed a kind of Baogu wine after research and development. On the day when the first jar of wine was opened, he happily ran around the village carrying the wine, shouting and inviting people to drink. Seeing his crazy appearance, the villagers thought that he was obsessed with wine-making. They shook their heads and sighed and said: It seems that this guy is crazy about wine-making. He actually brewed a kind of Pobao Valley wine and made such a fuss. However, when the villagers tasted the wine he brewed, they immediately felt that the wine was not only sweet and refreshing, but also had a special aroma. After a cousin of Chen Zongheng tasted it, he immediately approached him and asked to learn wine-making techniques.
One day in the summer of 1982, a fellow villager brought his relatives from afar to buy wine from him because he heard that the Baogu wine brewed by Chen Zongheng had an unusual taste. After tasting it, the guest couldn't help but said in surprise: Why don't you sell such good wine to more people and turn it into wealth? Chen Zongheng thinks it makes sense. After his investigation, he rented several rooms at the Liangwu Township Grain Management Office, moved his family there and established a brewery.
However, what Chen Zongheng never expected was that after the winery was built, the water quality changed due to the move. When he officially started making wine, the quality dropped a lot and the taste was not as good as before. What's going on? Later, after reading the information and consulting experts, he learned that wine making has very high requirements for water, and if you want to make good wine with a fragrant and sweet aroma, it is best to use sweet spring water. The water quality in Liangwu Township is very hard, and is bitter and salty water with a high neutral salt content. Therefore, the wine he brewed naturally tastes worse than the original wine and contains impurities.
As the saying goes, water is the blood of wine, and famous wines have good springs. A good water source is a necessary condition for brewing good wine. For this reason, Chen Zongheng decided to find new water sources. Once, when Chen Zongheng was collecting water samples from a mountainside in Badong County, he suddenly felt a chill on his back. When he turned his head, he saw a wolf staring at him, with a gloomy cold light in its green eyes. Chen Zongheng was shocked, thinking that the old man often said that when you encounter a wolf, you must be intimidating, so that the wolf will not dare to approach.
So, he turned around, bravely stared into the wolf's eyes, and backed away slowly. Sure enough, seeing his harmless hostility, the wolf turned away after confronting him for a while. Seeing the wolf walking away, Chen Zongheng, who was overly nervous, suddenly collapsed to the ground.
At the end of 1983, when Chen Zongheng came to Shuilian Cave, more than 20 kilometers away from Lichuan City, to relax, he suddenly heard the sound of gurgling water. It turns out that Shuilian Cave is a large natural cave located at the source of Qingjiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze River, with an underground flow of 20,000 meters. Seeing the gurgling mountain spring, Chen Zongheng picked up a handful of the mountain spring and tasted it. He felt that it was sweet and refreshing, refreshing the soul. He quickly filled the glass he carried with him from the mountain spring and went down the mountain to find someone to measure the water quality. Later, experts from the Provincial Water Conservancy Bureau determined that the hardness of this water was only about 20 mg/L, and the water could be hung on the wall, making it very suitable for wine making. You know, the water hardness in the north is as high as 600mg/L, and in the south, the water hardness is also up to 400mg/L. Water with a hardness of only 20mg/L is extremely difficult to find. This is undoubtedly the best water source for wine making!
Chen Zongheng was so encouraged by this result that he decided to move the winery to the mountains near Shuiliandong. But unexpectedly, when he decided to move again this time, his wife lost her temper and said: Less than a year after we moved here, you are moving again. Aren't you destroying a good winery? You have to know that our whole family’s property has been invested in this winery! How can you make money if you continue to work like this? When Chen Zongheng's mother heard the news, she was so angry that she hit him on the head with a cane and cursed him as a prodigal. But Chen Zongheng insisted that good water must be used to make wine. The mountain spring in Shuiliandong is an excellent resource for making high-quality wine. This relocation will definitely make him reborn.
Chen Zongheng has a stubborn personality, and even ten cows cannot pull back what he believes in. After the Spring Festival in 1984, he decided to move the winery to the foot of the mountain where Shuilian Cave is located. He observed that there were two springs here, which were very suitable for wine making. But after he made up his mind, he had already spent all his property in making wine and was no longer able to move. The more than 30 kilometers of mountain roads were full of potholes and muddy and difficult to navigate. Chen Zongheng was worried that the large number of wine vats could not withstand the bumps and did not dare to use tractors to transport them, so he hired more than 30 porters on credit to carry them on their shoulders. But the porters were too tired to walk carrying the wine jars, and they thought they made less money, so they still worked on credit. After a few days of work, some of them quit one after another. Among them, a porter saw that he could not get any cash after working so hard, so he deliberately broke a jar of old wine on the road and took the opportunity to invite everyone to drink. Chen Zongheng was so angry that he was anxious and angry, but he was helpless. Later, when he saw that he really had no money to pay for their freight, he reached a verbal agreement with the porters. The porters would help him transport wine, and he would be rewarded with wine.
In this way, after untold hardships, Chen Zongheng finally built a winery on the beautiful Huali Ridge, and allowed spring water to flow directly to the winery. He dreamed that once he used the mountain spring here to brew fine wine, he would just wait to count his money at home.
The lunatic who makes wine but does not sell wine is willing to bankrupt himself by hoarding wine
However, after Chen Zongheng used the unique mountain spring to brew fine wine, due to the backward local economy and limited consumption power, the 52-degree wine he brewed Liquor only costs a few cents. At that time, Maotai liquor with the same degree of alcohol had been sold for more than 20 yuan.
It’s the same wine, why is there such a big difference? In order to find out more and turn his liquor into Golden Phoenix, in May 1984, Chen Zongheng took the liquor he brewed to Maotai Town, Guizhou Province and Yibin, Sichuan, and visited the Maotai Distillery and Wuliangye Distillery respectively. After tasting his wine, the master sommelier of the winery felt that the quality of his wine was good, but it lacked historical background. A sommelier told him that the value of wine is not only related to the taste and taste, but also closely related to the history and culture contained in it. , Sommeliers said: The longer the wine is stored in the cellar, the more mellow and rich the wine will be. Moreover, the wine liquid, wine bottles, wine labels and wine packaging will also have the marks of time. Therefore, cellaring old wine not only stores wine, but also embodies quality and history and culture. With these foundations, the value of wine will naturally increase. The wine critic said: The reason why many companies store their wines in the beautiful and famous Dongtian Paradise is a way to reflect the cultural value of Dongzang liquor.
After listening to the words of the wine critic, Chen Zongheng was enlightened. He thought: Lichuan has a unique scenery, with mountains, water and caves. It is majestic, dangerous, strange and secluded. This is not it. A unique place to store wine? Inspired by this, Chen Zongheng decided to immediately store all the produced liquor.
Since then, since 1984, people have only seen Chen Zongheng producing large quantities of liquor, but they have not seen him selling liquor. But in this way, he stored all the liquor in the cellar. As the production volume increased, he consumed an astonishing amount of grain for making wine. To brew 1 kilogram of puree wine, Chen Zongheng consumed 10 kilograms of grain. Over time, he used all the grain of his family to make wine and hoarded it. When there was no more grain to make wine, he sold his pigs for grain. In the end, in order to make and store wine, Chen Zongheng went crazy and sold almost everything he could sell at home until he incurred huge debts. The family was forced to live in a mud house with drafts everywhere. , living by collecting wild vegetables and fruits
Guarding Jinshan but living like a beggar, Chen Zongheng’s family repeatedly persuaded him to sell some wine to improve his life, but he refused. He even said that he would rather beg for food than sell a pound of wine. Seeing that he was so paranoid, someone began to wonder if his head was broken and suggested that his wife take him to a mental hospital for a check-up. But no matter what others say, Chen Zongheng is still obsessed with making and storing wine, and he enjoys it. Not only that, Chen Zongheng actually also researched new wine-making technology, which changed his life in one fell swoop.
Once, Chen Zongheng was picking wild fruits and prickly pears in the mountains to satisfy his hunger. As he was eating, he suddenly thought: Can the prickly pears all over the mountains here be used to make wine? If brewed, will there be any secrets of wealth? That night, he looked up some books on wine making and found that prickly pear has high medicinal value. Its flowers, leaves, fruits and seeds can be used as medicine, and it is a top-quality raw material for processing health foods!
Prickly pear wine is unique to the country. Chen Zongheng knew that although he had brewed a unique treasure, there were still flaws in the brewing process. Therefore, he decided to go out and learn from his masters to enrich his creations.
After the Spring Festival in 1995, Chen Zongheng invited a master to make wine at home, and he went to work in well-known wineries across the country. During his apprenticeship, he went from winery to winery to learn and peeping. In this way, after two years of ups and downs, he finally learned the brewing techniques of major wineries, and then combined the strengths of hundreds of wineries to brew a prickly pear wine and kiwi wine that shocked the world. Later, he tried to produce pyracantha, scrophulariaceae, and plum wine in one fell swoop, finally turning these wild plants that had grown in the mountains for thousands of years into fine wines!
The world is drunk and Tujia Moutai brings out a rich man
If you pursue it, there will be miracles. In early 2000, two prosecutors from the Lichuan City People's Procuratorate went to Chen Zongheng's village to work on poverty relief. When they saw that Chen Zongheng's family was poor, they listed him as a target for assistance. During the time we spent together day and night, Chen Zongheng felt that they were approachable, so he told his inner secret: In fact, I am not a poor person. My dream is so big that almost no one believes it, and no one understands it. In order to pursue my dream, I endured humiliation and heavy burden for more than ten years! But I firmly believe that my dream will come true and will benefit the whole village. Seeing the prosecutor looking at him in confusion, Chen Zongheng choked up and told his experience, and then took them to his wine cellar.
The winding path leads to a quiet place, and the aroma of wine is fragrant. Before the wine cellar was opened, the prosecutors were intoxicated by the smell of hundreds of jars of wine exuding a mellow aroma. They never expected that this person would be The target of poverty alleviation actually hides a huge golden mountain in such a secret cave! Later, when they tasted one of the rosewood wines, they were even more surprised and exclaimed: Good wine, good wine! This kind of wine is as popular as Moutai and Wuliangye! It's sweet in the mouth, fragrant on the lips and teeth, and has endless aftertaste! After a prosecutor drank the wine, he even felt the lingering aroma even when he burped, and it lingered in his intestines for a long time. After that, when they learned that Chen Zongheng had no money to buy raw materials, they helped Chen Zongheng get a loan of more than 100,000 yuan.
One kilogram of wine sold for 1,888 yuan. This is undoubtedly a fantasy for the poor local villagers. These villagers usually find it expensive to buy 8 yuan a kilogram of wine. They have never heard of such a sky-high price. ? It actually exceeded the price of Moutai! The villagers refused to believe it, and Chen Zongheng’s cousin didn’t believe it even more. However, when everything became reality, Chen Zongheng’s wife finally learned that her husband had been holding on for decades just for this day, and she finally understood his good intentions. Hard work.
What is even more gratifying is that Chen Zongheng subsequently applied to the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce to register the Hualiling trademark, and also updated the packaging of Hualiling wine. In August 2007, Hualiling brand prickly pear wine was sent to Beijing as one of the top ten forest health wines in Hubei. It won the gold medal at the China Forestry Products Expo and was selected by Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Today, there are more and more varieties of Hualiling brand prickly pear wine, and it is also becoming more and more popular. The shouts became louder and louder, and Chen Zongheng successively reached cooperation intentions with merchants from Guangdong, Zhejiang and other places. Chen Zongheng's Hualiling wine is also like a business card of Hubei, and it has quickly become a famous local wine in China. After that, as word of mouth spread, businessmen from Malaysia, Australia, India and the United States also came one after another and signed sales contracts with him. Nowadays, Chen Zongheng’s wine has been hailed as Tujia Moutai and is widely designated as the designated internal wine supply for all levels of government procurement and group ordering. Chen Zongheng has stored thousands of tons of vintage wine for 30 years. According to expert evaluation, it is worth more than 300 million yuan. ! This poor and miserable country man became a billionaire overnight! Not only did he buy a 4-story villa in Lichuan City, he also purchased a high-end Buick car, and his life changed drastically.
How powerful is the dream that it is worth a country man clinging to for 30 years? In fact, Chen Zongheng is not stupid at all. He regarded jars of fine wine as the seeds of his dreams and buried them deep in the ground, allowing them to turn into fine wine 30 years later. Because of these 30 years of poverty, he finally became a rich man. On the other hand, his cousin also makes wine, but sells it after he brews it. So far, he has only lived a life of small wealth and peace. Compared with Chen Zongheng, it is not worth mentioning at all. It's like buying stocks. Retail investors come in and out. They may not be able to make money or make a fortune in their lifetime. And those who identify blue chip stocks and hold them for the long term will eventually make a lot of money over time. I hope the story of alcoholic Chen Zongheng can inspire readers all over the world.
Admire the countryside