Baijiu Deep Dive: Strong Aroma

Over at DrinkBaijiu.com, Derek Sandhaus has a great deep dive in to Strong Aroma baijiu – what it is, how it’s made, and some closeups of those mysterious earthen pits. Read the article here!

Inside Moutai

The South China Morning Post is on a baijiu tear these days: today there’s an article ‘Inside Fortress Moutai‘.  Fascinating stuff! “Maotai can be produced only in Maotai town, where a very specific microclimate creates the perfect conditions for baijiu,” explains production manager Zhou Xianlun, speaking in one of the buildings where sorghum is fermented. “In […]

Baijiu University!

Baijiu University! Sichuan University / Jinjang College have started a program to train baijiu brewers and experts. There’s also a program at Sichuang University of Science and Engineering! Time to queue up that study abroad? Washington Post has the story: The state-funded Baijiu College in the misty Sichuan mountains teaches students how to craft its […]

Download the Baijiu Tasting Scorecard

So! You’re enjoying baijiu and you want to record your thoughts about it. Or you’re hosting a get-together with friends and want to introduce them to baijiu, and you want to help them really pay attention to the unique and surprising flavors they’ll experience. Or you’re just detail-oriented!  Well, here is the current working version […]

Baijiu Collector alert: Christie’s Auction!

You know the west is really starting to pay attention to something when it hits Christie’s.  The auction house announced that they will host an auction of collectors bottles of Kewichow Moutai.  They expect the rarer bottles (from 1957 and 1958) to go for up to $40k USD. See the coverage at the Drinks Business.

Chinese liquor maker pays off bank with 900 tons of baijiu

Under pressure to pay back a multi-million yuan bank loan, a Chinese liquor maker reportedly cleared their debt with truckloads of cold, hard baijiu. But I wonder which baijiu-maker this was? There are reportedly more than 14,000 distilleries in China.  See the short article here.

Next Tasting Event: September 12

Our next tasting event is scheduled for September 12! We’ll cover an introduction to baijiu, covering how it’s made, where to find it, and intro to the four major aroma categories, and the some comparison of high and low-end baijiu.  We’ll have tasting notecards for you, and we’ll pair it with food. We might even […]

2-minute Baijiu Tour

This is a great 2-minute video tour of a baijiu operation:  Worth a minute to check it out! inside a very, very, very large baijiu factory pic.twitter.com/lRdkKp2bcl — Goldthread (@Goldthread2) August 17, 2018

production tour - jiannanchun

Jian Nan Chun tour

While nothing compares with visiting (and tasting, perhaps) a baijiu producer in person, Chengdu Food Tours has a great writeup and photo set visiting the Jian Nan Chun distillery.  You can just smell the hot steamy sorghum!

A $300,000USD bottle of Moutai!

A bottle of 80 year old Moutai, made by Kweichow Moutai in 1940, has been auctioned off in China for a record RMB 1.97 million (US$294,345), more than twice its estimated price, at a recent Moutai-themed auction that brought in close to RMB 85 million (US$12.5 million). See more at The Drinks Business.