First, the history of Moutai
Let me first introduce the production environment of Moutai, which is located in Maotai Town, Zunyi City, Guizhou Province. This is a small county located on the banks of Chishui River, surrounded by mountains, with an average elevation of 880m, an average temperature of 16.3℃, annual sunshine of 1400 hours and annual precipitation of 800- 1000 ml. The unique environment and ancient wine-making technology here have created today's Moutai.
Maotai Distillery was not originally called Maotai Distillery. The predecessor of Maotai Distillery is three wineries in Maotai Town, namely Cheng Yi, Ronghe and Hengxing, commonly known as Hua Mao, Elvis Presley and Lai Mao (the surnames of the founders of the three wineries). After liberation, the state merged these three wineries into the current state-owned Maotai Distillery.
Second, the brewing process of Maotai liquor
The brewing process of Moutai can't be finished even if a book is written, but it can be summarized by 12 words: nine times of cooking, eight times of fermentation and seven times of wine extraction. This is also the slogan that Maotai has been promoting. It is enough for ordinary people to know the word 12.
It takes at least five years for a bottle of ordinary Moutai to leave the factory. During the period, it will go through five processes, including koji-making, wine-making, storage, blending and packaging, 30 processes and 165 process links. Because of this, the production technology of Moutai is "the national intangible cultural heritage of China" and is known as "the living fossil of China liquor technology".
3. Are all the wines in Maotai Town Maotai?
I am often asked: Besides Maotai Distillery, there are many distilleries brewing Maotai-flavor liquor in Maotai Town, and some winemakers even come from Maotai Distillery. So can the liquor they brewed be compared with the liquor brewed by Maotai Distillery?
I come from Maotai Town. I have lived here for more than 30 years. I'm sorry to tell you that there is no winery in Maotai Town that can be compared with Maotai. All the wineries in Maotai Town are different from Maotai Town except for the same environment.
Even those winemakers who come out of Maotai Distillery can't brew the same quality as Maotai, because the brewing equipment and other factors are beyond the reach of ordinary wineries.
The following are the reasons why some other wineries can't make Moutai:
① artificial wages
The winemaker is the most important. Do you know the annual salary of an ordinary winemaker in Maotai Distillery? Because I worked in Maotai Distillery for some time before, as far as I know, the annual salary of an ordinary winemaker in Maotai Distillery will not be less than 654.38+ 10,000, and it is not considered as other benefits.
High wages naturally require high demands, and the winemakers in Maotai Distillery are the best in the same industry in terms of experience, technology and ability. In addition, the wine-making setting of Maotai Distillery is inferior to other wineries in all aspects.
② raw material difference
The main raw material of Moutai is sorghum, not ordinary sorghum, but red tassel sorghum with good quality. This sorghum has good quality, moderate tannin content, cooking resistance, rough turning resistance and high wine yield. The advantages of these raw materials laid the foundation for brewing high-quality Moutai.
Maotai Distillery buys high-quality sorghum at a high price every year, which is much higher than that of the same industry. Therefore, the sorghum with good quality is basically in the hands of Maotai Distillery, which almost forms a monopoly.
③ The base wine reserves are the most.
After so many years, Maotai Distillery has stored all kinds of wines, and there are many base wines to choose from. This is something that no winery can imitate. Even if other wineries have good bartenders, it's no use without good wine for you to mix. As the saying goes, "a clever woman can't cook without rice", which is the reason.
In addition to these factors mentioned above, there are many factors, which add up to create a unique Moutai in the world, which is also the reason why people can't brew Moutai.
4. Is Lai Mao Maotai or not?
There are many Lai Mao wines on the market now. Are these Lai Mao wines Maotai? This phenomenon is called "Lai Mao chaos" in our industry. I told you before that Maotai Distillery was formerly known as Cheng Yi, Ronghe and Hengxing.
Among them, Hengxing's boss is Lai Yongchu, a capitalist with strong brand awareness and market awareness. After accepting Hengxing Distillery, it was changed to "Laimao", thus forming its own trademark. Let's take a look at the trademark of Lai Mao in his early years. The trademark is a Dapeng with wings spread.
Maotai Distillery registered the trademark "Lai Mao" at 1996. In 2003, Lai's descendants filed a lawsuit to restore the trademark, which was revoked in 2005. Later, Maotai Group applied for registration of "Lai Mao" trademark many times, and was later sued by Lai's descendants many times.
It is precisely because the "Lai Mao" trademark has not been owned for such a long time that various Lai Mao wines have appeared in the market, and all of them are under the banner of authentic Lai Mao wines. In fact, these are all scratching the edge. In 2008 and 2009, a large number of Lai Mao wines emerged, such as Lai Yongchu, Lai Guishan and Lai Shijia, all of which are registered trademarks.
On 20 14, Maotai Group applied for registration of the trademark of Laimao again. Although Lai's descendants also filed a lawsuit, the court finally ruled that the trademark "Lai Mao" belonged to Maotai Group. Since then, the matter of Lai Mao trademark has finally settled, and there is no dispute.
Although the trademark problem has been solved, it will not happen overnight to rectify the chaos in Lai Mao for so many years. In recent years, Maotai Group has been trying to reverse the market, but the effect does not seem obvious.
Summary: Now the market is full of all kinds of fake Moutai, so you must pay attention when buying it. Never spend money on Moutai, and you end up buying a fake bottle of wine.