Today there is wine: The mystery of Zhijiang Daqu's growth

Author: Luo Wenquan / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-03-01
Features: In 2002, Zhijiang Industry ranked among the top 500 enterprises in China, ranking 321st in comprehensive strength and among the top ten in the same industry nationwide. The rapid development and market miracles of Zhijiang Industry once attracted attention from the Chinese economic and business sectors, known as the "Zhijiang Daqu Phenomenon." Hubei Zhijiang Industry was founded in 1817 (the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty) and has a history of over 180 years. Currently, the company has fixed assets of 360 million yuan, employs over 1,800 people, and operates three subsidiaries, five factories, 3,000 large solid-state liquor fermentation pits, 18 modern bottling production lines, and an annual output of over 38,000 tons of commercial liquor. It is a large liquor enterprise group integrating liquor brewing, printing and packaging, purified water, and feed processing. With nearly 700 million yuan in annual sales revenue, it ranks first in the same industry in Hubei Province. Its main product, Zhijiang Daqu, inherits the essence of history and culture, combines the essence of traditional folk brewing techniques, and is renowned as the "King of Hubei Liquor." This book authentically records the growth journey of Zhijiang Industry. It is divided into seven parts: "A New Chapter for an Old Brand" – Zhijiang Industry's Market Miracle; "A Hundred Years of Fragrant Wine" – The Mystery of Zhijiang Daqu's Growth; "Brewing Wine to Discuss Heroes" – Interviews with Figures from Zhijiang Industry; "The Source of Competitiveness" – Research on the Zhijiang Daqu Phenomenon; "People's Sentiments" – "The Drinking Song of Zhijiang Daqu in the Hearts of Consumers"; "Heartfelt Praise for You" – A Collection of Media Reports on Zhijiang Daqu; "Aged Wine is the Best" – Selected Advertising Copy for Zhijiang Daqu.
The public believes that China's best wines are mostly produced in the highland of Guizhou and the basin of Sichuan. From the "national wine" Moutai to the widely praised Wuliangye, from the historically famous Luzhou Laojiao to the popular Guizhou Chun, all benefit from the "fengshui" of Guizhou and Sichuan. But Zhijiang, a place of little fame, how could it brew such extraordinary wine? The answer is "refined brewing techniques and unique processes." "A thousand miles of orioles singing, green reflecting red, wine flags fluttering in water villages and mountain towns." This famous poem perfectly depicts the scenery of Jiangkou over a hundred years ago. As early as the late Qing Dynasty, in the (thousand-year-old town) of Zhijiang Jiangkou, large yellow wine flags with the character "wine" could be seen everywhere within dozens of kilometers, and within a hundred meters, there were various wine workshops, all emitting a fragrance of aged wine. At that time, the diligent and intelligent people of Zhijiang began to use these wine flags as a special form of advertising for "shaochun wine." They wrote the names of the shops on the flags, some hung them above the shops, others attached them to the roofs in front of the houses, and some erected poles to hang the flags to attract customers. Among them, the wine flag of "Qian Tai Ji" was the most eye-catching, as it listed the business methods and selling prices of the wine workshops. When there was wine for sale, the flags fluttered in the wind; when there was no wine or the workshop was closed, the flags were taken down. Although the wine flag of "Qian Tai Ji" was not as bold as the "Three Bowls, No More" sign on the wine shop where Wu Song drank before fighting the tiger in Water Margin, it still embodied a unique charm of "long days in the world of wine."
With the passage of time, although the wine flag of "Qian Tai Ji" no longer exists, we can still feel the lingering fragrance of a hundred years of wine. Today, the bright red flags fluttering in front of the modern Zhijiang Industry building are once again singing a new and more moving "symphony of the times."
The public believes that China's best wines are mostly produced in the highland of Guizhou and the basin of Sichuan, from the "national wine" Moutai to the widely praised Wuliangye, from the historically famous Luzhou Laojiao to the popular Guizhou Chun, all benefiting from the "fengshui" of Guizhou and Sichuan. But Zhijiang, a place of little fame, how could it brew such extraordinary wine? The answer is: refined brewing techniques, unique processes, high-quality underground spring water, which create the outstanding quality of Zhijiang wine. In 1988, at the Sichuan-Hubei-Shaanxi Food Fermentation Academic Symposium, Jiang Hongxing scientifically pointed out that the series of Zhijiang brand liquor, with its advanced production technology and scientific micro-component composition, achieved the sensory characteristics of "mellow aroma, elegant, round and refreshing, sweet and mellow, and a pleasant aftertaste." According to records, over a hundred years ago, the "Qian Tai Ji" dregs workshop produced "piled flower shaochun," using superior Sichuan angelica, licorice, Eucommia ulmoides, Poria cocos, honeysuckle, and 70 other Chinese herbal medicines. After crushing, they mixed them with seed koji for fermentation to make "wine koji," and then used grains to brew the wine. It was this traditional "soil method" that brewed the precious aged fragrance of Zhijiang wine. Modern scholars have various views on the origin of winemaking, but there is one thing that is unified: wine is a natural product, and humans did not invent it but merely discovered it. In the Jin Dynasty of China, Jiang Tong wrote in The Decree on Wine: "The rise of wine began with the Shang Emperor, or it was said to be Yi Di, or Du Kang. There was leftover rice that could not be finished, which was piled in empty mulberry trees. It fermented and accumulated, producing a fragrance over time, and this was the origin. It was not due to extraordinary fragrance." He was the first person in history to propose the theory of natural fermentation brewing with grains. Since the invention of writing, most of China's wine has been brewed with wine koji. Wine brewing is the essence of Chinese winemaking. The reason for adding wine koji is that it contains a large number of microorganisms and enzymes such as amylase, saccharification enzymes, and protease secreted by microorganisms. Enzymes have biological catalytic effects, which can accelerate the conversion of starch and protein in grains into sugar and amino acids. Under the action of yeast enzymes, the sugar is broken down into ethanol, or alcohol. Historical records contain a large number of methods for making wine, which have been passed down from generation to generation and continue to this day. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Yi Di made "excellent wine" to offer to the Yellow Emperor, proving the beginning of brewing wine with grains. From the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties to the Tang and Song dynasties, fruit and grain were steamed, then fermented with koji and pressed to extract the wine. By the Jin and Yuan dynasties, winemaking techniques made further breakthroughs. Li Shizhen recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica: "Brewed wine was not an ancient method; it was invented in the Yuan Dynasty. It uses strong wine and refined grains to steam, allowing the steam to rise, and then collects the dripping drops with a container. All sour wine can be distilled and brewed. Recently, people are afraid to use glutinous rice, or rice, or barley to steam, mix with koji, and brew in jars for seven days, then steam and distill. It is as clear as water and has a very strong taste, which is wine dew." This means that the brewing process had begun to change from the original steaming, fermenting with koji, and pressing to steaming, fermenting with koji, and distillation. The intelligent people of Zhijiang Industry fully utilized traditional winemaking techniques and created many "brand wines." During the 1954 major flood, they produced persimmon wine, acorn wine, bran wine, etc., and were the first in the entire Yichang region to send technical workers to assist in establishing the Yichang County Liquor Factory, the Yidu County Liquor Factory, and the Wufeng Liquor Factory. In July 1956, the Zhijiang Liquor Factory actively carried out the "Three Learnings" and "Three Improvements" activities, namely, learning from Luotian County Liquor Factory's high output rate, learning from Songzi County Liquor Factory's low cost, and learning from Sichuan's small-koji wine's new technology; improving management, improving technology, and improving production conditions. The following year, the master technician Zhang Hongsheng honorably attended the first national winemaking professional conference and, upon returning, implemented the use of the "water sealing method" to merge steaming operations and built cellar fermentation pits. Then, the technical workers successfully developed "soil koji," and the batch-produced koji was widely sold to most liquor factories within the Jingchu region. In 1960, the people of Zhijiang Industry began to try brewing with corn stalks. In August 1965, the 50-degree Zhijiang white wine made from red sorghum had an output rate of over 62%. The Hubei Provincial Winemaking Professional Site Meeting was therefore held in Zhijiang, where representatives from over 80 liquor factories observed the Zhijiang Liquor Factory and listened to the introduction of the experience of changing artificial cold dregs to electric fan cold dregs by the factory manager and technical personnel. The product was classified as first-class, and the Zhijiang Liquor Factory became a model in the same industry in the province. In the 1960s, a series of reforms were carried out in the brewing process of Zhijiang wine, such as using a well for water supply to end the history of workers carrying water to brew; using homemade boiling water pumps to cook grain, so workers no longer had to stand on the steam basket handles to pour boiling water; changing traditional stoves to return-air stoves and inventing the six-tube heart-through pot to save a lot of fuel. In 1962, the first new product, "Zhijiang Daqu," was trial-produced and put into the market. From the 1970s to the 1980s, they were the first in the province to change the traditional solid-state fermentation manual production to mechanical winemaking production, using homemade hand-over-hand carts to transport dregs in the brewing workshop, making it no longer necessary for workers to carry and carry the original wine; hiring two masters from Luzhou County Liquor Factory in Sichuan to participate in winemaking guidance and installing semi-automatic and automatic production lines. By the end of 1980, the "Zhijiang" brand series liquor was successfully registered with the National Administration for Industry and Commerce for the first time. The bottled Zhijiang Daqu and Zhijiang Xiaoku entered Beijing Zhongnanhai as famous liquor from Hubei Province, and their technical parameters were designated to participate in the evaluation of national small-koji quality standards, winning the bronze cup award for the highest prize in the same category.
Entering the 1990s, the technological transformation of Zhijiang Industry advanced by leaps and bounds. In 1991, the Zhijiang Daqu technological transformation project was included in the "Hubei Province Famous Liquor Project," with a total investment of 23.6 million yuan jointly raised by the provincial government and the enterprise, to expand the brewing workshop and build more large-koji fermentation pits, and introduce an automatic blending and storage system. Subsequently, after approval by the Provincial Economic and Trade Commission, an additional 55 million yuan was invested to complete the 20,000-ton high-quality low-degree small-koji technological transformation project. "When the wind blows, a thousand families get drunk; when the bottle is opened, ten miles are fragrant." The unique charm of Zhijiang Daqu is neither a gift from heaven nor a gift from nature, but rather the crystallization of the wisdom and continuous innovation of the people of Zhijiang Industry generation after generation. The "koji" of Zhijiang Daqu has a mysterious formula. According to expert testing, this "koji" can catalyze over a hundred aromatic components in the fermentation process, forming a unique wine quality and taste. The scene of brewing Zhijiang Daqu is extremely spectacular. The steaming workshop, shrouded in mist and steam all year round, is filled with hot waves. The brewing masters first steam the fine grain wine materials with bamboo baskets, then cool them down, add koji powder for saccharification, and then put them into earthen pits for fermentation. After a period, they load the ripe sand into the steamers for distillation, add koji, put it back into the pit for fermentation, take it out, and steam it again. After eight or nine repetitions, under the rolling hot steam, bright and fragrant wine gushes out. Being there, one naturally feels the sensation of "wine does not make one drunk, but one drinks it willingly." It may seem simple, but the brewing process is extremely complex and winding, refined and meticulous. Zhijiang Daqu inherits hundreds of years of traditional strong wine brewing techniques and absorbs the advanced skills of Luzhou Laojiao, using medium-high temperature koji, adopting solid-state saccharification fermentation, solid-state distillation, and closed storage techniques. Some famous microbial experts who studied the brewing process of Zhijiang Daqu summarized it as "three highs and one long," namely, high-temperature koji production, high-temperature fermentation, high-temperature wine flow, and long-term storage, making the flavor of the large-koji wine mellow, rich cellar aroma, mellow and sweet, and a long aftertaste. As the saying goes, good wine must come from good cellars. The "cellar" refers to the yellow clay pits used for the fermentation of strong aroma large-koji liquor. The yellow clay, after being nourished with materials, contains a variety of nutrients and is a good carrier for microorganisms and external nutrients. Zhijiang Industry has a large number of old cellars with a history of nearly 200 years, which is also the advantage of Zhijiang Daqu as a "century-old brand" compared to ordinary wines. Zhijiang Daqu also has a very key process, which is blending. The quality of the wine largely depends on the blending level of the winemaking master, just like a chef facing the same ingredients, the one with higher cooking skills can make the most delicious dishes. But many people don't understand why blended liquor is blended? Shi Weiping, a national-level wine appraiser from Zhijiang Industry Co., Ltd., told reporters that there is a saying in the Chinese liquor industry: "Aroma depends on fermentation, aroma enhancement depends on distillation, and shaping depends on blending." Originally, wine is made from various microorganisms and enzymes under certain temperature and pressure conditions, transforming the various components of the raw materials through various biochemical reactions into finished products. During production, each batch, each tank, and even each jar of wine has certain differences, so to keep the wine basically consistent with its original style, blending technology must be used. Zhijiang Daqu wine contains hundreds of components. To make the types, contents, and ratio relationships between these components meet the specified requirements and consumer tastes, the blender often spends a long time, using a combination of manual tasting, instrument analysis, and microcomputer preparation. Each batch of wine is blended by experienced blenders who, based on their rich knowledge and experience, finely classify the original wine, use accurate test data and computer technology to design a blending plan, conduct small-sample blending, and then adjust the flavor, repeating the process until the final "aroma point" and "flavor point" that people love are extracted from the high-quality original wine, making the aroma and flavor of the wine perfectly integrated. It can be seen that the blending of Zhijiang Daqu wine, although mysterious, is actually an art.
Liquor is a traditional distilled liquor, named after its colorless and transparent product. According to the raw materials, liquor is divided into grain liquor and substitute raw material liquor. Zhijiang Daqu, using red sorghum, pure rice, and high-quality wheat as the main raw materials, is a typical grain liquor. According to the production method, it is divided into solid-state, semi-solid-state, and liquid-state liquor. According to the saccharification and fermentation agent, it is divided into large-koji, small-koji, and bran-koji liquor. According to the aroma type of the product, it is divided into sauce-aroma, strong-aroma, light-aroma, and rice-aroma, etc. Most of the famous and high-quality liquors in the country are large-koji liquors, such as Moutai and Luzhou Laojiao. Zhijiang Daqu possesses the essence of large-koji liquor and has formed a unique style, which is why many consumers are "addicted to it." In the early 1990s, Jiang Hongxing, who was in charge of production technology, was the first in the same industry in the province to use active dry yeast and saccharification enzymes in solid-state methods, creatively introducing a new method where active dry yeast is directly used in the production process without activation. The development projects he led, such as the research and development of 38-degree low-degree small-koji wine and the transformation of strong-aroma liquor production to reduce the degree, received quality awards from the National Light Industry Ministry and provincial and municipal governments. The computer blending software they independently developed was recognized by experts as the most advanced computer blending system in the Hubei Province liquor industry. These technological transformations and improvements have further increased the scientific and technological content of Zhijiang Daqu wine. Zhijiang Daqu began a major product publicity campaign, using newspapers, magazines, television, and radio as media, and various carriers such as light boxes and public buses, to highlight the long history of the "century-old brand" in winemaking, to highlight the individual characteristics of quality in the premium series, and to highlight the deep historical ties between Zhijiang wine and the Three Gorges culture. With a flexible marketing strategy that adapts to changing circumstances while maintaining stability, Zhijiang Daqu has brought endless vitality to the market. They adopted a product development strategy where industry and commerce jointly bear risks, involving merchants in the creative and design stages of new products. ?book_contents=I Sing a Song of Zhijiang – A Blessing for Zhijiang Daqu (Preface I) The Image Publicity and Famous Brand Culture Strategy of Zhijiang Industry (Preface II) "A New Chapter for an Old Brand" – Zhijiang Industry's Market Miracle ""——“”“”————————————————————“”“”————“”————————“”“”“”“”————