Crafted in the ‘sauce’ style it’s a big and powerfully aromatic Baijiu with flavours of soy sauce ripe papaya fresh pear toasted walnuts smoked nuts sesame seeds coffee beans cacao garden herbs white flowers and cooked tropical fruits. On tasting it it’s not hard to see why it was awarded the honourable title of National Liquor the highest accolade for any wine or spirit in China. Starting with a base of organic sticky sorghum it takes five years to make each bottle of Moutai Flying Fairy which includes nine distillations and three years ageing in ceramic pots. 
Spirits Business ranked Kweichow Moutai as the world’s most valuable spirits brand in 2021 beating the likes of Jack Daniel’s Hennessy Smirnoff Bacardi and Johnny Walker again. So this is a bottle that deserves a place in any serious drinks cabinet. Named after the town of Maotai in Guizhou province where it originated Kweichow Moutai have been making Baijiu for over 200 years. The brand shot to fame outside of China when it picked up a gold medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco and later when it was served by Mao Zedong to visiting dignitaries at state dinners. 
Baijiu has been China’s national drink for more than five millennia and is the most-consumed hard liquor on the planet (18 billion litres are made each year). Although the West has been slow on the uptake that’s all about to change. Sales of this fascinating spirit are exploding around the world. And it’s worth noting that Baijiu is as important a part of Chinese heritage as silk tea ceramics martial arts and calligraphy all of which have become very popular on these shores.
The name translates as ‘clear spirit’ and Baijiu can be distilled from sorghum wheat rice sticky rice or corn. What makes it unique is two-fold. Firstly it’s an ingredient called ‘Qu’ – bricks of damp grains left in a warm place until they grow yeasts fungi and microorganisms – that is used to kickstart the fermentation a little like koji for Japanese Sake. This gives Baijiu a distinctive aromatic funk which reminds us a little of high-ester Jamaican rum. Secondly it’s the fact that Baijiu – unlike any other spirit we’re aware of – is created by distilling the solids not the liquid. Baijiu is then matured in ceramic jars; something that’s becoming increasingly fashionable in the world of wine also. These breathable containers allow micro-oxygenation of the spirit and remove impurities all without adding flavour.