In this impetuous era, people like to pursue "running fast in small steps" and "quick iterations" rather than "working slowly and carefully" and "achieving success over time". The former makes society and the public more "impetuous" and "involved", while the latter makes society and the public more "stable" and "happy".
There is such a company in the wine industry called "Guixiandong Liquor". The wine is as its name suggests, and the word "slow" highly interprets the true meaning of Guixiandong Liquor. From the three perspectives of craftsmanship, storage, and market, we can see that Guixiandong Liquor adheres to the development logic of "slow but moderate, slow is fast" and practices the growth path of "quality first, long-termism".
Among the twelve major flavors of liquor, the brewing of Maotai-flavor liquor is famous for its many processes, long cycle and time-consuming process. The "12987" technology of making koji during the Dragon Boat Festival and taking the sand during the Double Ninth Festival is produced according to the season. The "12987" process of one production cycle per year, two times of grain feeding, nine times of cooking, eight times of fermentation, and seven times of wine extraction has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Every grain of "red tasseled sorghum" "After a complicated brewing process, we can create bottles of good wine with a mellow and long taste.
Guixiandong Liquor, known as the "founder of China's Dongxiang Sauce Liquor", has a more complicated and unique craftsmanship. In the natural cave that combines karst and Danxia, ??the temperature is 18-23°C all year round, with constant temperature and humidity all year round, making it a very special brewing environment. It is brewed and produced under the guidance of the national patent of "Cave Fermentation Technology for Brewing Maotai-flavor Baijiu". After each accumulation, it needs to be fermented in the cellar for two months. The degree of fermentation is more complete and the fermentation cycle is as long as two years. The extremely high production costs become insignificant in the face of the craftsmanship that strives for perfection day by day. The craftsmanship in slow work is the guarantee of the superior quality of Guixiandong wine.
Liquor is a friend of time, especially when it comes to storage. Freshly steamed wine is spicy, irritating and has a poor taste. For good wine, aging is a necessary process. To this end, major wineries and academic circles have conducted a large number of scientific research, using physics, chemistry and other methods to accelerate the aging of liquor. Studies have found that natural cave storage is one of the most effective ways.
Wu Xiaoping, a national liquor judge and wine design master, pointed out that “the cave storage process is more conducive to the sublimation of liquor quality. One year of cave storage is equivalent to three years of cellaring, making the wine’s impurities more completely released. , the taste is more mellow and elegant.” The saying "one day in the cave, thousands of years outside the cave" is quite exaggerated now that scientific knowledge is popularized, but the role and value of caves have long been recognized by the industry.
The brewing history of Guixian Cave originated in the first year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty (1796 AD), more than 200 years ago. It was named after the stalactites in the cave naturally formed the shapes of dragons, turtles and gods. The dragon turtle is said to be one of the "Nine Sons of the Dragon". Its head is a dragon and its body is a turtle. It can provide peace of mind, ward off evil spirits, and attract wealth. It is a symbol of power and longevity. Because people worshiped and offered sacrifices to the dragon turtle, it evolved into the blessing culture of Guixian Cave in later generations.
At the same time, the three words "turtle, fairy, and cave" each have profound meanings. Turtle, longevity and stability, is one of the four spirits along with Lin, Phoenix and Dragon. It is one of the representatives of Chinese culture and has witnessed the development of the Chinese nation, such as Luoshu, Turtle Shou, etc. The longevity of the turtle is related to the storage time of the wine, and the stability of the turtle coincides with the complex process, long time and unique 22987 of the sauce wine. Immortals are people. Mountains are not high. If there are immortals, they are famous. Cave, a natural cave, is a combination of Guizhou's Danxia and karst landforms. In traditional Chinese culture, immortals live in caves, and treasures are hidden in the caves. There is often a saying that "a day in the cave means a thousand years in the world", which proves that the quality of the wine stored in the cave is higher.
Indeed, the natural cave Guixian Cave has constant temperature and humidity all year round, creating an excellent aging environment for the storage of sauce wine. The sediments in the cave are several meters or even more than ten meters thick, providing a breeding ground for wine-making microorganisms to thrive. The association of water molecules and alcohol molecules in the pottery jar is more complete, making the wine elegant and delicate. If you taste Guixiandong wine carefully, you will find that the authentic Daqu sauce aroma has a bit of the unique aged flavor of the cave.
Dr. Li Hong, director of the Brewing Research Center of the China Institute of Food and Fermentation Industry, once tasted Guixiandong Wine·Danxia and said that the quality of the brewed in caves is different. The old wine has a strong flavor and a soft entrance with a faint pine mushroom flavor.
Guixiandong’s wine takes at least six years to leave the factory, and the average age is well over four years. It is worth mentioning that Guixian Cave, where wine making in the Qing Dynasty continues to this day, has thousands of wine jars in the cave, many of which are century-old jars. The surface of the jars is covered with plaques bearing the traces of time, and the cave walls are inhabited by wine bottles that have been nurtured for many years. The "wine bug" is full of mysterious and sacred colors.
On May 26, 2021, Buchang signed the "Investment Agreement on the 40,000-ton Maotai Liquor Technical Transformation and Capacity Expansion Project", planning to spend 15 billion yuan to add 40,000 tons of Maotai Liquor production capacity (Canada Uehara has a production capacity of 10,000 tons, and the production capacity will reach 50,000 tons by then).
On June 16, Li Bingjun, deputy secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee and governor, met with Zhao Tao, chairman of Buchang Group, and his delegation in Guiyang. During the meeting, Zhao Tao reported on the development status and future plans of Guixian Cave. Li Bingjun affirmed the achievements of Guixiandong and looked forward to Guixiandong implementing the concept of high-quality development in the future and contributing to Guizhou's economic transformation and upgrading. After this meeting, the governments of Guizhou Province, Zunyi City, Xishui County, and Xijiu Town paid attention to it at multiple levels and planned to coordinate 3,000 acres of land for the step-length sauce wine technological transformation and capacity expansion project.
Working slowly and carefully is a craftsmanship attitude, and it takes a long time to achieve success. It is a principle of life. The "slow" development of Guixiandong Liquor is not only for the present, but also for the long-term. It is slow and craftsmanship, natural and unique.