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28-576: The most famous and best selling brand of maotai is produced by Kweichow Moutai , which has become the most valuable spirits brand not just in China but in the world as a whole. However, despite common misconception, Kweichow Moutai is not the only producer of maotai, nor do they own any exclusive right to the name. Maotai must simply be produced in the town of Maotai and follow the production guidelines as laid out in regulation. Alcohol production in Zunyi , on

56-657: A cultural icon has granted it broad market successes as well. Sitting at 181 on Fortune 500 China, the distillery is the largest non-technology company in China and the most valuable spirits brand worldwide having surpassed the British multi-national spirits conglomerate Diageo in 2017. Its A shares were listed in the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2001. It is one of the few Chinese listed companies whose share price had exceeded CNY 100. The price reached CNY803.5 in 2018. Kweichow Moutai and Camus started

84-601: A retired master distiller, and resumed the production of maotai in the newly founded "Chengyi" distillery and sixteen years later, in 1879, three Renhuai landlords opened the "Ronghe" distillery. It's with these two distilleries that many of the techniques and profiles of contemporary maotai were finalized. At the beginning of the 20th century, with the fall of the Qing dynasty and the birth of the Republic of China , maotai continued to be in demand with "tribute liquor" being crafted at

112-421: Is a Chinese company specializing in the production, sale, and distribution of Maotai liquor, a particular style of jiangxiang ( Chinese : 酱香 ; lit. 'sauce aroma') baijiu . Since the establishment of the company in its modern form in 1951, Kweichow Moutai has become the most famous brand of baijiu both within China and abroad gaining a notoriety among politicians and businessmen. The spirit

140-557: Is in 1704, when in Renhuai Caozhi, a local newspaper, it was written that "Moutai Village in the west of the city ranks first in the whole country for making liquor." In 1854, during the Taiping Rebellion the town of Maotai was destroyed and all of the distilleries reduced to ruins or abandoned completely. Nine years later, in 1863 a salt merchant from a neighboring town bought one of the abandoned distilleries, hired

168-483: Is often presented at large diplomatic events with foreign dignitaries such as welcome dinners for US President Nixon's 1972 visit to China , as well as Xi Jinping's and Barack Obama's 2013 bilateral meeting in California. Famously, at a state dinner with Deng Xiaoping , US diplomat Henry Kissinger was quoted as saying, "I think if we drink enough Moutai, we can solve anything.” Kweichow Moutai's position as

196-837: Is on the foundation of these three distilleries that Kweichow Moutai was to be built. Maotai's importance in contemporary China has many of its roots in the era of the Chinese Civil War . It was in Zunyi, the prefectural city over the town of Maotai that Mao Zedong became the leader of the Chinese Communist Party at the Zunyi Conference and it was during the Long March that many Chinese troops and many of China's future leaders, including Zhou Enlai would gain an appreciation for maotai. Stories from

224-458: The politburo of the CCP was held. For nearly fifty years, it was commonly thought to have been held from January 7–9, as related by a senior leader. Fei Peiru, a historian and former museum curator of Zunyi, is credited with establishing the currently accepted dates of January 15–17. The names and numbers of participants in the conference have always been disputed. These details are of importance to

252-605: The 28 Bolsheviks and towards Mao. The Red Army regained its military power, survived in Yan'an and ultimately defeated the KMT using a guerrilla strategy, and later through conventional warfare as it gained mass peasant support. It could be seen as a victory for those old CCP members who had their roots in China and, on the contrary, was a great loss for those CCP members such as the 28 Bolsheviks who had studied in Moscow and had been trained by

280-754: The Second Red Army commanded by He Long , thought to be in Hubei to the west and north. Communications between divided groups of the Red Army had been disrupted by the Kuomintang campaign, and during the planning to evacuate Jiangxi, the First Red Army was unaware that these other Communist forces were also retreating westward. Initially the First Red Army, with its baggage of top communist officials, records, currency reserves and other trapping of

308-530: The attendance of Chen Yun, Liu Shaoqi, Wang Jiaxiang, He Kequan, Deng Fa, Nie Rongzhen, and Deng Xiaoping. On the other hand, Liang Botai , Wu Liangping , Teng Daiyuan , Li Weihan , Wang Shoudao , and Yang Shangkun are also held to have attended by some sources. The main agenda of this conference was to examine the Party's failure in the Jiangxi region and to look at the options now available to them. Bo Gu

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336-1652: The banks of the Chishui River , has a long history dating back to at least the 1st and 2nd centuries BCE where there is record of Han dynasty Emperor Wu tasting and praising a goqijiu produced in Yelang . However, it wasn't until the Tang and Song dynasties that grain based distilled alcohols began to develop in China as a whole. The origins of Maotai itself, and

364-656: The battle of the Xiang river affected the morale of the troops and desertions began. By a 12 December 1934 meeting of Party leaders in Tongdao , discontent with Bo Gu and Otto Braun appeared. Under these conditions, the Communists met in Zunyi to reshuffle the Party politburo. In January 1935, after the Red Army took over the city of Zunyi, a town of military importance in Guizhou , Southwest China , an enlarged meeting of

392-472: The cooperation in 2004, and Camus became the worldwide exclusive distributor of Moutai products for the duty-free market. Zunyi Conference The Zunyi Conference ( simplified Chinese : 遵义会议 ; traditional Chinese : 遵義會議 ; pinyin : Zūnyì huìyì ) was a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in January 1935 during the Long March . This meeting involved a power struggle between

420-605: The distilleries that preceded Kweichow Moutai, lie in the Qing dynasty after 1644. Beijing officials of the salt monopoly , were stationed at an outpost in Maotai. They introduced baijiu production methods from their northerly home ( qingxiang ), which were merged with the then in-use methods from neighboring Sichuan ( nongxiang ). The result of this blend of techniques served as the basis for jiangxiang baijiu and more particularly for maotai itself. The earliest explicit record of maotai

448-634: The exiled Chinese Soviet Republic, fought through several lightly defended Kuomintang checkpoints, crossing the Xinfeng River and through the province of Guangdong , south of Hunan and into Guangxi . At the Xiang river , Chiang Kai-shek had reinforced the KMT defenses. In two days of bloody fighting, 30 November to 1 December 1934, the Red Army lost more than 40,000 troops and all of the civilian porters, and there were strongly defended Nationalist defensive lines ahead. Personnel and material losses after

476-479: The largely Soviet view that elected members of the party were outvoted by non-members. Those who are most strongly agreed to have attended by all are Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Chen Yun , Liu Shaoqi , Zhang Wentian , Bo Gu, Liu Bocheng , Li Fuchun , Lin Biao , and Peng Dehuai . Chinese sources which show that non-members could not have outvoted members have the following participants: Various scholars dispute

504-532: The leadership of Bo Gu and Otto Braun and the opposition led by Mao Zedong . The result was that Mao left the meeting in position to take over military command and become the leader of the Communist Party. The conference was completely unacknowledged until the 1950s and still no detailed descriptions were available until the fiftieth anniversary in 1985. In August 1934, with the Red Army depleted by

532-472: The maotai is effective. Everyone praises it." In a likely apocryphal story, company commander Wang Yuenan, and one of Mao's guards Chen Fengchan, were in returning from a trip to purchase maotai for this very purpose when they ran into Mao himself who told them; "Maotai is a place famous for its wine, but it would be a pity to wipe your feet with this wine!" While in the town of Maotai during the Long March,

560-486: The modern, state-owned Kweichow Moutai in 1951. Since the foundation of the modern Kweichow Moutai, the spirit has served as part of the standard fare for Chinese diplomatic meetings and dinners. From Mao's gifts of maotai given to Joseph Stalin and Kim Il-Sung in 1950 and 1973 respectively, to Zhou Enlai's use of the spirit as a diplomatic tool for the 1954 Geneva Conference and the welcoming banquet for Richard Nixon 1972 visit to China , maotai has served as one of

588-531: The political bureau of the Red Army issued a notice to the passing soldiers to note the importance of maotai liquor and refrain from interfering in the private distillation of the spirit ongoing except to buy or sell. Shortly after the end of the Chinese Civil War and after the founding of the People's Republic, the three existing maotai distilleries, Chengyi, Ronghe, and Hengxing were merged to create

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616-519: The primary cultural items representing China on the international stage. Its use in these terms has become so well known that when Deng Xiaoping visited the United States in 1979, Henry Kissinger told him "I think if we drink enough Moutai we can solve anything." Kweichow Moutai Kweichow Moutai Co. Ltd. ( Chinese : 贵州茅台酒股份有限公司 ), commonly referred to as Kweichow Moutai ( Chinese : 贵州茅台 ; pinyin : Guìzhōu Máotái ),

644-483: The principle of democracy for majority, the secretariat of the Central Committee and Central Revolution & Military Committee of CCP were reelected. Bo and Braun were demoted while Zhou maintained his position now sharing military command with Zhu De. Zhang Wentian took Bo's previous position, and Mao once again joined the Central Committee. The Zunyi Conference confirmed that the CCP should turn away from

672-610: The prolonged Chinese Civil War , a spy ( Mo Xiong ) placed by Zhou Enlai in the KMT army headquarters in Nanchang brought news that Chiang Kai-shek was preparing a major offensive against the Chinese Soviet Republic 's capital, Ruijin . The Communist leadership decided on a strategic retreat to regroup with other Communist units, and to avoid annihilation. The original plan was for the First Red Army to link up with

700-416: The request of the short lived Chinese leader Yuan Shikai for the occasion of his coronation as emperor. In that same year, maotai was presented at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition and awarded a medal which spurred a rapid increase in demand for the spirit within China and in response a rapid increase of production capacity for the two distilleries. In 1929 the third distillery "Hengxing" was founded and it

728-414: The time recount Red Army soldiers and officers enjoying maotai both for consumption and for more practical purposes, primarily the cleaning and disinfection of the soldiers feet. In "Memoirs of the Long March" the author Cheng Fangwu wrote; “Because of the urgent military situation, we dared not drink much liquor. The liquor was mainly used to wipe our feet and relieve fatigue on the road. Wiping feet with

756-448: Was supported by Mao and Wang. Mao's comparative distance from power over the past two years had left him blameless of the recent failures and in a strong position to attack the leadership. Mao insisted that Bo Gu and Otto Braun had made fundamental military mistakes by using tactics of pure defense, rather than initiating a more mobile war. Mao's supporters gained momentum during the meeting and Zhou Enlai eventually moved to back Mao. Under

784-427: Was the first to speak with a general report. He acknowledged that the strategy used in Jiangxi had failed without taking any blame. He claimed the lack of success was not due to poor planning. Next, Zhou gave a report on the military situation in an apologetic style. In contrast to Bo, he admitted mistakes had been made. Then, Zhang Wentian condemned the leaders for the debacle in Jiangxi in a long, critical oration, which

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