100 Billion Wine Market Survey: Moutai, Whiskey Bubble Looming, Brandy Awakening

Gan Jun photo

At the China International Wine Exposition held in Shanghai this year, a set of eight famous liquor in 70s was photographed about 800000 yuan. From Jiangsu, Jin Dexuan, a collector of the market, came to see Zhao Min, a reporter for the market, told reporters on twenty-first Century economic report that this is not expensive. A bottle of old Moutai in 60s is worth the price.

In 2011, Zhao Chenxian, known as the first person in the collection of Chinese Moutai wine, photographed a full box of 12 bottles of Moutai in 1985 with a price of 1 million 465 thousand yuan. In the same year, at the first annual Moutai wine auction held in Guizhou Province, he took a bottle of Han di Moutai wine at a price of 8 million 900 thousand and refreshed the auction record of Moutai wine.

Driven by Moutai, the price of Maotai liquor has soared. In September 4, 2011, a bottle of 1935 year old Lai Mei liquor, which was produced in China's famous liquor auction in Hongyun auction companies, Guizhou Province, was sold by the Ningde entrepreneur Lai Lai yuan for 10 million 700 thousand yuan in a sky high price. The bottle was named "the king of Chinese liquor".

"China's old wine market starts at zero and grows at 50% per year. Last year, the sales volume reached 50 billion yuan. This year, there are about seven billion yuan." At the end of November, Zeng Yu, a collector of wine and collectors and investment guidebook in China, told reporters in twenty-first Century that half of them were liquor.

However, this year's China International Wine Fair is different from previous years. The first ceremony to buy brandy wine at market price was launched in China. For the brandy, which won the Panama prize in 1915, the Yantai Zhangyu grape wine Limited by Share Ltd (hereinafter referred to as Chang Yu, 000869SZ) announced that the wine would be exchanged for 1 million 132 thousand yuan worth of wine. In twenty-first Century, the business reporter noted that this price tag and the world's most expensive Cognac (Brandy) were valued at 114 thousand and 500 pounds in 1795, which was brewed by Eagle Cognac (Brugerolle).

But compared with Moutai's old wine and Lai Mao's old liquor, the brandy gap is not small.

"China's enterprises that produce wine and brandy are only one company that can continuously achieve 100 years. The valuable value of Chinese brandy wine remains to be further explored. " Wang Qi, executive vice president of China Wine Association, said. Zeng Yu also believes that the collection of special wine will become a new trend of wine collection in the future.

But according to the twenty-first Century economic news reporter's interview, compared with Moutai liquor, the same long cycle and money smashed, but the brandy market is small because of its small collection market, and the number of people entering the bureau is small, especially the high-end brandy will take time to usher in the harvest period.

Waking domestic brandy

Wine has been turned into brandy by distillation and aging, but the latter has richer aroma than wine. Brandy is therefore called the soul of wine.

"An English doctor who specializes in Chinese science has published an article, brandy was founded in China, and Compendium of Materia Medica has recorded it." Wang Qi said, as early as in the Ming Dynasty, Li Shizhen recorded the wine burning method: "take dozens of jins of grapes, with Daqu stuffing, and take it into steam and steam, so that it can bear its dew and its red is lovely." Zeng Yu said that this wine, called brandy, was far fetched, but at least brandy's embryonic form.

"Chinese liquor occupies more than 30% of the world's spirits market share, but basically confined to the Chinese market, and brandy belongs to the whole world." In June this year, Wang Qi held the first China brandy Development Summit Forum in Yantai, saying that the brandy produced in France is the best in the Cognac area. Apart from French brandy, other countries that produce wine also have brandy of different styles. Some of them are excellent in quality, such as Georgia and China. At present, there are dozens of brandy enterprises in China, and the number of large enterprises is relatively small. From 2013 to 2017, Zhangyu brandy accounted for more than 96% of brandy market share for five years in a row. Brandy in marketing such as Weilong, Dynasty, the Great Wall and Mogao is only supplementary products.

The so-called brandy market is basically drawn by foreign brands. Among them, Remy Martin, Hennessy and other brands are the main lines. Wang Qi said, why domestic enterprises are unwilling to develop brandy products for three reasons: first, the cost of time is too high. Besides cumbersome processes, it has to be stored in oak barrels for many years, for example, the XO level. Although the regulation is at least 6 years, it actually takes longer. This is not cost-effective for many enterprises to pursue fast food nowadays. The other two points are that foreign brands occupy brandy's core brand status, and the cost of competition is limited and domestic brandy consumption and consumption scenarios are limited.

So, for a long time, brandy has been shown at a low price. Compared with distilled brandy, blending brandy can be as low as thirty or forty yuan.

The mainstream competition of brandy is essentially the competition for high-end pricing power. Last year and this year, with brandy winning the gold medal of the Brussels international liquor competition and the global brandy XO blind champion, held by the professional media "Drinks Business" at the German wine exhibition, the Chinese Liquor Association awarded the title of "China brandy first village", awarded Zhang Baochun the title of "Chinese brandy top master", and the brandy began to awaken and the high-end campaign started.

"One of them is double yeast fermentation, which has been praised by Cognac brewers. They did not expect grapes to use this method to improve their quality. We have studied more than 40 technologies to obtain national invention patents, and the first Chinese high-end brandy technology system has passed national appraisal. Zhang Baochun said at the brandy forum.

In addition to improving the quality, we should concentrate on the high-end brandy, and reassess the value of old wine.

Wang Qi said that the history of brandy's industrialization in China began with the creation of Zhangyu company in 1892 and has a history of 127 years. Zhangyu's brandy old liquor repurchase explains its high-end quality, cultural details and scarcity value.

Similarly, the COFCO wine industry has been storing brandy for more than 20 years. "Most of these the Great Wall brandy were distilled in 90s, and they have been in barrels, relying on experience marketing." In the San Gang chateau, the head of the COFCO wine industry told the twenty-first Century economic news reporter that from the pricing point of view, the Great Wall brandy sold for more than 20 years to sell around 2000 yuan / bottle, not lower than Moutai liquor.

"Our first batch of brandy produced 10 thousand boxes, sold 5000 boxes, and the rest were collected. I drank from my friend 30 years of brandy, which was very fragrant. Wang Guangxin, general manager of 00389.HK trading company, told the economic news reporters in twenty-first Century.

"The wine culture of the Chinese nation for thousands of years has been distilled for less than a thousand years. In the late twentieth Century, China's foreign wine market was flourishing, some of which were awarded awards both at home and abroad. Many Chinese foreign wines have Chinese characteristics in the production process, such as vermouth, golden pheasant, and ginseng brandy. In the brewing process, Chinese herbal medicines are used, many of which have local ethnic characteristics. Ceng Yu said, but most Tibetan friends still stay in the stage of collecting highly liquor. Whether the wine can be drunk as the standard, the cultural value of the special wine has not received due attention and expression.

Brandy VS whisky

But in the old wine market, brandy is far less than the whisky fire.

Whisky in Japan comes from behind. Throughout twentieth Century, whisky in Japan was regarded as a follower of Scotch whisky. Until 2001, the British professional magazine Whisky Magzine held the Best of the Best blind contest for the first time. The two whisky scores from Japan were first and second, shocked the world. Whiskey enthusiasts began to chase and collect Japanese whisky.

In addition, the supply of Japanese whisky declined, and auction prices rose. Last January 30th, a 50 year old Karuizawa single malt auction price broke a world record of up to 299 thousand dollars. Nowadays, a bottle of ordinary Japanese whiskey in 12 years is almost two times the same level as Scotch whisky.

In the domestic auction market, after the twenty-first Century economic report reporter interviewed, he was informed that a few years ago, an auction house in Nanjing had organized a brandy special field. Thereafter brandy often entered the auction as a single product, and the auction price did not break the record for many years.

"I personally think that a good wine is measured by three standards. The first is the raw material producing area, which depends on the local climate and soil. Two is the year of storage, three is the craft, is it pot type distillation, or is it other technology? All of these determine the difference of products. Xu Xubin, marketing director of China's general agent, Cognac (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., Ying Jue Cognac, told the economic news reporters in twenty-first Century that the diversity of brandy has not been excavated.

This is also the opinion of the auctions. People from the famous liquor Department of Guangzhou Huayi International Auction Co., Ltd., on the phone, told the economic news reporters in twenty-first Century that brandy, with grape as its raw material, had a large output and was affected by scarcity.

In addition, the shortage of brandy talent is also considered to be an important reason restricting the development of brandy in China. "Especially the high-end brandy, the master of brewing is very short." The responsible person of COFCO wine industry said that brandy should enter the high-end field instead of one or two years. But he believes that Chinese brandy does not matter seriously, but takes time.

Brandy is actually a lot of people and tastes better for people aged forty or fifty. Young people drink more whisky. " In Xu Xubin's view, in the old wine market, there has been a bubble in whiskey. Just like Moutai wine has been constantly hyped up, many people are hoarding goods, and there has been investment risk.

Brandy is different. Its price is not as high as that of high-end liquor. The price of XO and VSOP is transparent. If it is not hyped too much, it will not fall too bad. Xu Xubin believes that with the improvement of consumers' educational level and cognitive level, brandy VSOP400-500 yuan price can be accepted by the public.